Toledo Assembly Plants and Supplier Park: Jeep and Dodge

In some ways, the Chrysler-Toledo story began in 1903, when Albert A. Pope took over Toledo Steamer. When the 1907 recession shut down Pope’s car companies, John North Willys bought the huge Toledo plant for Overland Motor Company. (As a side note, the famous Owen R. Skelton then left his engineering job at Pope-Toledo to become a transmission specialist for Packard.) Toledo remained Willys-Overland’s primary plant through the creation of the Jeep, World War II, and the postwar boom.

In 1954, Kaiser, an automaker run by shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser, bought Willys-Overland for $63 million. Willys was known for its Jeeps, which not only had no real competitors outside of International Harvester in the United States, but had a thriving export and international licensing business (including India’s Mahindra). After buying the company and renaming it to Willys Motors, Kaiser combined its production and sales organizations. Willys lost $35 million in 1954, but would be rapidly turned around by the skilled engineers and marketers of Kaiser.

An almost immediate benefit for Kaiser was being able to sell its massive Willow Run plant to General Motors, which was in dire need after losing its automatic transmission plant; Kaiser moved into the Willys Toledo plant, GM moved into Willow Run, and Kaiser pocketed almost enough to pay for Willys.

Willys’ Jeep Parkway plant, above, was well established when, in 1942, the Stickney Plant was built by Autolite; in 1964, AMC bought it for use as a machining and engine plant.

Willys Motors was profitable by 1956, allowing for product line expansion; in 1962, the corporate name was changed to the Kaiser Jeep Corporation. To quote Bill Watson, after 1955, “Willys Motors never looked back, becoming a nice little source of income for the Kaisers.”

On March 3, 1964, Kaiser Jeep took over Studebaker’s military vehicle production contracts as the latter shut down their operations, acquiring Studebaker’s Chippewa Avenue Plant as part of the deal. In the same year, AMC purchased Autolite’s 1942-vintage Stickney plant, to use for machining and building engines.

Toledo Machining (in Perrysburg) opened in 1967, and was expanded in 1969; from then until the present day it built various components for numerous Chrysler factories and vehicles.

In 1970 American Motors bought the U.S. operations of Kaiser Jeep and, in 1971, spun the military vehicle operations off into AM General.

In 1981, the Stickney plant was converted to build the Jeep Grand Wagoneer; it was renamed Toledo Assembly Plant when Chrysler Corporation acquired American Motors Corporation in August 1987. In 1991, Wagoneer production stopped; the plant was demolished and replaced by Toledo North and the Toledo Supplier Park.

In 1996, nearly 40% of the Jeep Cherokees made in Toledo were shipped outside the United States; half of all Cherokees were for customers outside North America.

Toledo North and the Digital Factory

Toledo North was completed in 2001, four years after its groundbreaking, at the cost of $1.2 billion. The 2.1 million square foot plant started out with 2,969 employees. Toledo South continued to make the Wrangler.

The Chrysler Digital Factory system, used extensively by Mercedes, was based on Jeep’s Toledo facility, where the Liberty set new standards for build quality, beating nearly all Mercedes models in quality rankings.

The Toledo North Assembly Plant, or T-NAP, was designed to be as technologically advanced as possible. It uses a system that lifts and lowers the body as it moves from station to station (a method pioneered by Volvo in the 1970s).

An electronic notification system, also used in the Brazil Dakota plant, notified closely-tied suppliers of needs "just in time." The system is specific, letting suppliers know when a vehicle is scheduled and started so they can do their part to outfit it. There is almost no inventory, and most delivered parts are used right away, which means it is susceptible to traffic and other problems.

The Jeep plant was designed using UGS' e-VIS software, which allows for 3D factory and process design. An ergonomic analysis was conducted for all 200 workstations, using a simulated employee, whose moves were carefully modelled. Time and motion and health (e.g. back strain) could all be studied by computer - along with such niceties as clearance (would people and parts fit in the allotted space?). A full model of the plant allowed for a simulation with cars running down the conveyors, and virtual workers actively picking up and attaching parts.

Recent plant updates

In 2005, the Toledo plants at Stickney Avenue and Jeep Parkway, which made the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, employed 1,329 people, while Toledo North, building the Liberty, employed 2,658 people. A nearby machining plant employed 1,638 people to make steering columns and torque converters.

The Toledo North Assembly Plant, home of the Liberty, was the first Chrysler facility built using manufacturing simulation for only $54 per square foot, an industry benchmark when compared to the industry average of $70-80 per square foot.

In 2006, the Supplier Park at Toledo South opened; it made the body and chassis of the Wrangler, painting it as well. Owned and operated in partnership with KUKA, Magna Steyr, and OMMC starting in 2006, the Supplier Park had 3,408 employees in its 2.5 milion sqare foot facility, built at a cost of $2.1 billion.

For 2007, the Toledo North Plant was retooled to manage building two different models on one production line (Nitro and Liberty) and to improve quality, productivity, and worker ergonomics. At the core of the new flexible manufacturing process was a body shop with 150 robots instead of the vehicle-specific heavy tooling that was previously used. The door, hood and liftgate assembly system was new, as were the side aperture assembly systems.

Only the robots' "hands" needed to change to build the different models, and that was done automatically, within the time it took to cycle from one vehicle to the next. TNAP could vary production between two products anywhere from 0 to 100 percent of each model. A third model could also be piloted — or test-built — at the same time, helping reduce the time needed to make new-model changeovers.

An inbound parts sequencing center housed in the Stickney complex managed more than 1,800 different parts, and provided parts metering, kitting, and container management to both Toledo plants. A significant portion of TNAP was fork-truck-free as dollies provided materials to production areas, improving safety and productivity.

A new model workplace model let employees design their own work stations. These changes provide a better work environment for employees and give increased support to assembly line team members. (This is presumably part of the empowered team system of management.)

For 2008, a $638 million investment to build the new Liberty included multiple plant upgrades, improving quality, productivity and worker ergonomics. More than 160,000 square feet were added to the plant floor to enhance body and assembly processes. Chrysler wrote, “The 2.1-million-square-foot Toledo North Assembly Plant occupies 200 acres and has more than 2,700 employees working two shifts, with the third shift of approximately 750 employees to begin in the third quarter.”

Build summary

Old Toledo North plant: 1994-95 Dakota.

New Toledo North plant: 2001-present, Liberty; 2006-present, Dodge Nitro

Toledo South plant: 1986-present Jeep Wrangler

Key factory pages at Allpar

• Assembly plants:
  • Windsor, Ontario assembly plant complex (also see preparing Windsor for the 2008 minivans)
  • Dodge Main
  • Toledo, Ohio Jeep plants
  • Jefferson Avenue and Jefferson North
  • Sterling Heights Assembly and Stamping plants
  • Lynch Road Plymouth-DeSoto plant (1928-1980)
  • Maxwell / Chrysler New Castle plant (1907-2002)
  • AMC / Nash at El Segundo
  • Conner Avenue (Viper and Prowler)
  • Belvidere
  • Rotterdam (the Netherlands)
  • Swiss assembly plants (AMAG, MOWAG)
• Support plants:
• Twinsburg stamping plant
• Mack Avenue engine complex
• Mt. Elliott Tool & Die / Outer Drive Stamping
• Detroit Axle
• Sterling Heights Assembly and Stamping plants
• Factory photos:
• 2009 Dodge Ram
• 1995 Neon (Belvedere)
• Chrysler LeBaron Convertible (St. Louis)
• Newark Assembly Plant
• Other facilities
  • Chrysler Technical Center / Auburn Hills Complex
  • Chelsea Proving Grounds
  • Plymouth Road Office Complex (PROC / JTE)
  • Corporate Office and Display Building, 12220 Jefferson Avenue (1933-????)
  • Arizona Proving Grounds (2008) — both Wittman and Yucca
• Related pages
  • Working at the factory: Dave Tyjeski (2009), Bill Wetherholt (2009), Matt Wetherholt (2009), Views (2002), Teamwork (1998)
  • Summary of facilities, 1924-2009
  • 1966 Chrysler factories (including Space and Defense)
  • Factory closings under Daimler and Cerberus
  • Summary of facilities — including factories and administrative buildings — 2005-2007

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