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 | Source: Automobile History Day By Day, by Douglas A. Wick |
Monday, October 20, 2008
Chrysler's uphill road in China
U.S. pioneer became an also-ran -- and Daimler didn't help
Steven Xu didn't sell a single Chrysler 300C last month. But by local standards, he's an optimist, just because he kept the doors open at Yueye Chrysler during the October National Day long weekend. "Not so good," the business manager of the suburban Shanghai dealership says of sales of the 300C, the larger of two Chrysler cars now made in China. 
Interview: Hank DeSamper on Challenger, Sebring quality improvements
October is Quality Month. Focus on Quality displays throughout the Auburn Hills Complex are giving employees a chance to see, feel and learn about quality improvements across the brands. The displays included vehicles representing cars and minivan, the Jeep® brand, and Dodge trucks, including the new Chrysler Aspen Hybrid.
Hank DeSamper, Quality Manager for the Car and Minivan Product Team, said the focus on Dodge Challenger and the Chrysler Sebring created a real employee buzz.
Hank DeSamper
Quality Manager—Car and Minivan Product Team
People standing around and talking about the various things, and really looking at it and saying, “Oh, yeah. That is a lot better. Oh, I like what they did there,” and, “Gee, this car is a lot different than when it was launched a year ago. So I think there’s positive impact. They’re seeing the changes we’re doing. These changes were driven by customer inputs, so they know that we’re addressing the right things. They’re talking about the displays and the cars, and that’s really the whole idea—to put that focus on quality.
Narrator
Let’s talk about each of these vehicles. What about the Challenger?
DeSamper
Challenger was the car that was most recently launched, so during the development phases we’ve done a lot of fixes. On performance quality for the Challenger — a couple of big things we did there was a 30 horsepower increase on the 5.7 engine, as well as a 30 foot-pound torque increase—all while improving highway fuel economy by 8 percent. So that really helps us all the way around on that performance metric. But the big thing on Challenger that we focused on is the perceived quality. That’s kind of the things that—it’s not broken but just doesn’t look nice, the customer doesn’t think it’s really up to where it should be. Things like body fits, and things like that. What we did on the Challenger, especially, was the engine compartment, because it’s kind of a showpiece car and people sit around in driveways with their hoods open and talk about it and look at each other’s engines, and there’s that whole kind of thing going on. So we did a lot of things to dress up the engine compartment that we added back into the car to, you know, hide things like exposed bolts, and that kind of stuff.
Narrator
And what about the Sebring? That also got a fair number of changes.
DeSamper
With Sebring we really made some great strides in the ordinary quality, which is directly based on our warranty. We improved over 200 c/per 1000 since the launch year. That’s ’07 to just to’08 in one year. The other big improvement was in the J.D. Power IQS satisfaction surveys. We had a 59 point improvement from 2007 to 2008, and we’ve got about 35 more points that we’re projecting over the next couple years of things that we still haven’t gotten in yet. And that was kind of the other point of the displays. We mentioned some of the things that are coming in the future that we don’t have necessarily yet. So there’s a lot more to come.
Narrator
How many more customer-driven ideas are you getting? Is the list growing and growing?
DeSamper
Yeah, the list continues to grow. We’ve focused on what’s called the Voice of the Customer now for all of our development programs where we’re really going out and doing clinics, and various types of things all across the country to understand what customers really want. In-depth comparisons of the competitive vehicles and where they score, and reflect that the customer really likes those features. And then really talking to the customers themselves through these clinics to get what they really want into the car. It’s really good to see these displays so you can understand what types of quality you can impact most. That’s what we’re really trying to do. Get everybody to focus on quality. We even have little sticky dots that you can put on the different types of quality to show which ones you impact. We want to get everybody thinking about – you know, it’s two of the key pillars –- Customer First and Quality … Period. So that’s what we’re really trying to do –- is expose this to everybody –- get them excited about the quality changes, and get them thinking about how they impact quality on a day-to-day basis.
Narrator
Reporting for Audio Scoop, I’m Betty Carrier Newman.
Chrysler cuts shift at Windsor plant
Posted by businessnewss in Uncategorized.
Chrysler said Friday it will eliminate one shift at its Windsor, Ont., assembly plant over the next three weeks.
The car manufacturer informed the Canadian Auto Workers Union Friday afternoon that it will eliminate the afternoon shift for the first two weeks. In the third week, the midnight shift will be temporarily laid off.
Chrysler said it will re-evaluate the situation after three weeks.
CAW local 444 President Rick Laporte said he’s aware the company is trying to re-adjust inventory since minivan sales have dropped.
“My understanding is the minivan sales have really fallen off; my understanding is they have actually fallen off 25 per cent,” said Laporte, whose local represents about 5,000 workers at the Windsor minivan assembly plant. “There’s no orders ? the dealer’s have got all they need at this point in time, so that’s why they’re slowing down.”
Each shift employs between 1,200 and 1,500 workers. The employees will be able to file for unemployment insurance and supplementary unemployment benefits.
At one point on Friday afternoon, Laporte said he was told by the company there was no plan to eliminate any of the three shifts at the plant.
“How can you tell me one thing at 1 p.m. in the afternoon, and at 3 p.m. come out with a whole other different thing?” he said.
Laporte said that besides the Chrysler workers, the elimination of the one shift will affect thousands of employees at plants that supply parts for the minivan.
Feeder plants also affected
“There will be a lot of feeder plants affected, also having shifts on layoffs. So that only adds to the 1,200 people at the Windsor assembly plant and about another 4,000 in Essex county who will feel the pinch here as well.”
Windsor has one of the highest unemployement rates in the country.
Friday’s news came in the same week that Daimler AG announced it was closing its truck-making factory in St. Thomas, Ont., as part of a strategy to pare down ailing truck operations and save $600 million US.
The St. Thomas operation employs approximately 1,400 workers and was already scheduled to lose 720 jobs as the company eliminated a second shift at the plant. Daimler said it will shut the operation entirely by March 2009.
| NEWS ANALYSIS GM/Chrysler? Anything's possible In cash crunch, unthinkable becomes common DETROIT — With a roiling economy, cash flow woes and a credit crisis, the Detroit 3 are entertaining possible alliances that once would have been considered fanciful. General Motors and Chrysler LLC are talking about a merger, and Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli told Automotive News that either Renault-Nissan or a Chinese automaker could plausibly make a bid for Chrysler. It's the kind of environment in which many possible combinations are being discussed. Will any of these proposals bear fruit? Here's our take on six possible scenarios. ... story Published: October 20, 2008 06:01 European Central time |
Friday, October 17, 2008
Dodge Ram media blitz kicks into high gear
The launch will connect with consumers through new forms of content, new distribution channels and targeting tools.
The centerpiece of the campaign is the Ram Challenge Web site.
The site was designed as a unique destination to promote Ram, host exclusive content and showcase a unique reality series.
The Ram Challenge reality series was developed to highlight the features and benefits of the all-new Dodge Ram in an exciting and entertaining way. Broken into a number of “webisodes,” the challenge will pit four teams of American heroes—firefighters, military, cowboys and contractors—in a series of elimination challenges using the all-new Ram.
The webisodes will continue over the next few weeks. Some will air exclusively on ramchallenge.com.
The site currently houses a variety of content and will be continually updated in an effort to deliver an entertaining experience to visitors.
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