Windsor, Ontario Chrysler plants

Windsor, Ontario Chrysler plants

thanks to R. Perry Zavitz and Jim Benjaminson of the Plymouth Bulletin, and Bill Watson



Originally built in 1928, the surviving Windsor Assembly
Plant now has four million square
feet of floor space. In the 1990s, started to Windsor increase its lead in productivity and quality, thanks largely to an employee-led change effort.



The complex itself dates back to 1916, when Chalmers set up a branch factory in what was then Walkerville and what is now Windsor, Ontario. Maxwell opened a factory nearby shortly afterwards. Thus, when Maxwell and Chalmers were reorganized to become Chrysler Corporation of Canada Limited in 1925, they already had a major Windsor presence, which became even greater in 1928 with the purchase of Dodge Brothers, whose Toronto operations were moved to Windsor.





The company built a new factory on Tecumseh Road in South Walkerville, which built all Chrysler brands - 20,010 cars in its first year, which gave Chrysler a larger market share in Canada than in the United States.



Plant 1: Truck Production



The Maxwell-Chalmers factory on Tecumseh Road at McDougall was converted to truck production in 1931, making Dodge, Graham, and Fargo trucks. This became "Plant One. " In 1955, it was expanded and encompassed a building across the street. From 1972 until 1978, the plant made commercial D-400 to D-700 models. "Bluecon" thought it was the home of the L'il Red Express Trucks.

Plant One built trucks until 1978, when it was shut down for one or two years; then, from 1980 to 1983, Plant One was the Imperial Quality Assurance Centre. It was closed again when the slow-selling Imperial was dropped.



Plant 2: Windsor Engine Plant



Plant 2, or the Windsor Engine Plant, built in 1938, supplied the other Windsor factories; it was expanded (at the cost of $29 million) in 1955, and ran until 1980. Just south of the existing minivan factory, Plant 3, WEP mainly made six-cylinder and V8 engines. Photos of the plant at work.

Plant 3: Windsor Assembly Plant (WCAP)





Canadian plants were essential to Chrysler, partly due to local-production rules, and partly because American designs were adapted to Canadian needs, resulting in, among other things, Dodge-labelled Plymouths.

Dealer groups were originally Chrysler, Plymouth, and Fargo, and Dodge, DeSoto, and Dodge Truck; DeSoto was eventually replaced by Chrysler, so most dealers had the Chrysler brand.

The local production tax advantages ended in 1965 with the Auto Pact, and Chrysler switched its plants from making small numbers of all vehicles to larger numbers of fewer vehicles, cutting the number of models in half between 1965 and 1967. Chrysler Canada had sent 81,000 cars to the U.S. before GM Canada sent any.



The Windsor Assembly Plant (Plant 3) was built in 1929. Retired Chrysler Canada photographer Larry Monkhouse wrote that, in the late 1950s, "Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, and Chrysler models were built on the same assembly line. Dodge and Plymouth models shared body panels [before the Auto Pact]."

• 1975 cars being built at Windsor
• 2009 minivans being built at Windsor
• 2011 minivans being built at Windsor
• 2016 minivans (Chrysler Pacificas) being built
• 2007-2015 plant updates/upgrades

The Windsor Assembly Plant had made a much greater variety of vehicles before the 1965 Auto Pact; to quote The Chrysler Canada Story, "...the factories in Windsor quickly integrated into the North American industrial strategy. The mix of models running down the assembly lines in Windsor was slashed. Valiant (not Plymouth) Barracudas, Plymouth Belvederes, Dodge Coronet and Charger models and Imperials were imported; Dodge Darts (not sold in Canada before) were exported from the US. Concentrating on building fewer models translated into a 35% higher rate of productivity, and likely bolstered quality.

In the first two years of Auto Pact, Chrysler Canada was responsible for nearly 60% of all Canada-to-US car and truck exports.



"Later, Windsor was chosen to build the near-luxury Chrysler Cordoba and upscale Dodge Charger SE, because head office knew that Canadian-built cars were of higher quality than those built in American plants. It was no secret that folks working in upper management positions in the US routinely ordered Canadian-made vehicles for personal use."

In 1977, Windsor added 136,000 square feet to build capacity to build the 360 engines.




The original Windsor Assembly Plant (Plant 3) started at out 289,000 square feet and grew to 2.5 million square feet. It was the sole source for numerous cars, including the Cordoba, Charger SE, Magnum XE, Mirada, 1981-83 Imperial, and 1981-83 Diplomat and Gran Fury.

Ten days after the last 1983 car was made, the building was "stripped to the bare walls" and retooled, taking just 16 weeks and US$400 million to be converted to minivan production. Chrysler claimed it was one of the most modern, advanced factories in North America and one of the best in the world, with over 125 robots. 112 of those robots did 97% of each minivan's 3,800 welds, monitored by computer for weld quality and position. Robots also applied sealers and handled materials.



The plant also included automated full-immersion cleaning and primer application, the industry's first robotic painting of body interiors, and automated headlight and front end alignment. The ten mile Windsor line was computer monitored with 44 video camera placements for supervisors. (The following photo appears to be the computer control center for the plant but might have been Chrysler's new Control Data supercomputer.)





Building minivans in the 1980s/1990s • Building minivans at Windsor in 2009 • In 2011 • In 2016

Plant 3, the original minivan factory, converted to flexible manufacturing in 2003 and now the sole Chrysler minivan factory again. Windsor employed
4,600 people in early 2007 and survived the St. Louis and Austria facilities.



In 1991, the Windsor plant - management and union members alike - applied for, and won, the Canadian Award for Business Excellence, in the quality category. Manager Adrian Vido wrote, in a 1993 article for CMA Magazine, that they used the basic plan-do-check-act system for the change, foregoing more complex models. Adrian, who was promoted to plant manager but jumped to Ford in 2000 (after Daimler started cracking down), credited the Quality Improvement Process (QIP) and the customer-supplier relationship as major contributors to the process:

Everyone in our plant is encouraged to know who their customers are, both internally...and externally... [and] to understand our customer requirements and to measure performance against those requirements. Our emphasis on what the customer needs continually drives us to new levels.

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Changes cited by Adrian Vido in CMA:

• Customer satisfaction increased by 38%
• Number of warranty claims improved by 30%
• Warranty costs cut by 25% per unit
• Scrap costs cut by $2 per minivan
• Injuries reduced by 18%
• Grievances reduced by 55%
• 32 million pounds of waste eliminated

Part of the QIP process was the "error cause removal" process, which allowed a bypass for problems that could not be resolved through normal means. The process required a 24 hour response to any complaint; anyone could initiate a complaint. When the form was filed, someone was immediately assigned to start resolving the problem through corrective action teams; a committee met every other week to review open problems. The employee is the only person who can end the process.

Every manager and over half the union members were trained in QIP by 1993, with a goal of training everyone; the training was done by CAW-chosen hourly workers.

A core team, headed by a CAW member and including 24 people who could be sent out to each division in sub-teams, helped communication between line workers, supervisors, suppliers, and engineers. Having the team in place eliminated more than enough waste to pay for its $1.6 million annual cost.

Daily "working together meetings" were held at different divisions; in attendance were senior managers, area managers, the core team, engineering reps, union representatives, line workers, and the area supervisor. Each meeting started with a success story, to boost morale; then the group did a walk-through of the supervisor's area, with the supervisor noting their requirements along several key categories.

There were also daily operational meetings for both shifts, which included reviews of key outcomes (e.g. dimensional integrity and body tolerances), staff issues, quality, cost, processes, etc.; these were held on the line to increase involvement.

Adrian credited changes in the dress code for some of the success of the effort. In order for the changes to work, barriers between managers and line workers had to change. One of their first decisions was to relax the dress code, having managers and supervisors forgo suits and ties, a clearly visible difference. Other keys to success were:

• Managers listening and responding to line workers with empathy
• Managers asking for help in problem solving without giving up their own responsibilities
• Managing with facts - understanding and using appropriate measures and data, benchmarking, measuring success by the numbers
• Sharing the "big picture" through daily production letters, leave of absence and manpower planning, town hall meetings, handouts, and posted goals and objectives throughout the plant; through the CAW newspaper and posting boards; and through the core team's newsletter.

The changes at Windsor may have been partly and indirectly responsible for the trend that led to the current empowered work teams.



2014-2015 expansion

On Friday, December 26, Chrysler Canada started using a 600-ton crane to start installing 200 pieces of structural steel to create a new conveyor enclosure on the plant's roof. Just over 20 feet tall, the enclosure will house the plant's new skillet line, used globally by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The skillet adjusts its height to ideal levels for workers, improving quality with a better line of sight while improving long-term worker health. 14 weeks of downtime were planned to begin in February as wholesale renovation began. Full story / more photos



At the end of 2014, the 4.4 million square feet Windsor Assembly Plant employed 4,600 employees across three shifts to produce the Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Town & Country, Ram Cargo Van, and Lancia Grand Voyager. In March 2014, Windsor was the first FCA North America plant to get a Silver award in World Class Manufacturing.

Pillette Road van factory: Plant 6



The Pillette Road (Windsor) plant (Plant 6) was completed in 1974 to help fill the demand for Chrysler's popular B-vans, which, starting in 1973 and until around 1979, were the market leaders, beating Ford and Chevrolet. Full Pillette Road page, with photos of B-vans being built.

Walkerville

Bill Watson wrote:

When GM announced that Fisher Body was no longer going to supply bodies for non-GM makes, Chrysler Canada had a big problem. There were no other body builders in Canada who could take up Chrysler's business.

In the U.S., Chrysler, which also used Briggs, Murray, and Hayes, acquired a body plant on Kercheval Avenue. But in Canada, the only large body builder, Canada Top and Body in Tilbury, Ontario, was busy with its work for Durant and Willys. Studebaker and Ford built their own bodies in Canada and neither Briggs nor Murray had Canadian operations.

Chrysler of Canada decided to acquire the two Fisher Body plants in Walkerville where Chrysler bodies had been built. When the Chrysler Centre plant opened, body production was moved there and the Walkerville plants were sold.

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Walkerville later became part of the city of Windsor.

Chrysler's Canadian factories, 2006


Chrysler Canada has had a larger market share than Chrysler in the U.S. for three years out of four from its founding through 1983, and outsold Ford in 1976, 1982, and 1983. The five millionth car produced by the Windsor Assembly Plant was a minivan, built on May 9, 1984.

Also see:

• Pillette Road: building B-vans (many photos)
• Photos: building Chrysler Cordobas and Dodge Chargers at the Windsor Assembly Plant in 1975
• Preparing the Windsor factory for the 2008 minivans: flexible manufacturing, work teams, and more
• Chrysler factories

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