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In the Chrysler Plants: CudaPete on Quality Engineering, Part 4
Feb 4, 2025
CudaPete talks about the steps Chrysler took to ensure quality in the assembly plants — everything from checking supplier parts to making sure a red car didn't have a green bumper! (with a minute or two about the Newark plant at the end)
#motales #factories #chrysler #acclaim #dodgespirit #lebaron #mopar
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0:03
hello and welcome to another episode of
0:05
motals I'm Dave's minion Cuda Pete and
0:08
today will be the fourth in our series
0:11
of what was involved in Supply and
0:13
manufacturer of auto parts for the
0:16
Chrysler Corporation back in the mid
0:18
1980s so as I spoke before we talked
0:22
about engineering we talked about
0:24
supplier quality and we talked about
0:26
material handling today we're going to
0:29
be at the assembly plant and see how
0:32
things worked out there so as part of my
0:34
assignment at Chrysler I was assigned to
0:37
the Newark Delaware assembly plant to
0:39
work on the AA body launch in
0:43
1988 and that was for the 1989 Dodge
0:46
Spirit Plymouth Acclaim so once I got to
0:49
the plant as part of supplier quality
0:52
part of my responsibility was to make
0:54
sure that the parts were being delivered
0:56
correctly and that the plant was
0:58
receiving quality items so I Would Walk
1:00
the Line every day and look at what was
1:03
going on talk to the guys make sure
1:05
everything was fitting properly make
1:06
sure everything was labeled properly the
1:08
boxes were correct and if there were any
1:10
issues I would have to report back and
1:12
we'd get the suppliers involved in the
1:14
beginning an assembly plan is a large
1:16
place and trying to find your way around
1:17
can be difficult but in this handbook it
1:20
took a lot of the information for the AA
1:22
cars and compiled it into a small area
1:26
so that it was easily accessible and
1:28
that you can reference it as need needed
1:30
so what would be included in this book
1:32
we had things like the AA body sales
1:35
codes the AA body sales
1:38
packages vehicle identification plate
1:41
and body code plate how do how to
1:43
interpret those uh we had the body and
1:46
white parts list and the assembly
1:48
information and tolerances so this way
1:51
you could go over to the body shop and
1:53
you could see which parts were there and
1:55
where they went on the car before it was
1:57
actually assembled and that was quite
1:59
interesting interesting because a lot of
2:00
it was automated and the welding was
2:02
done by robots so you had to make sure
2:05
that the parts were in the right place
2:07
at the right time and everything got put
2:09
together correctly and then you'd have
2:11
to go through at the beginning and count
2:12
the number of welds make sure everything
2:14
was good because this was the initial
2:16
startup for the AA body so of course
2:19
there were a few things that had to be
2:21
sorted out along the way so that was
2:23
rather interesting other things we had
2:25
to look at were the wiring harnesses and
2:28
connectors even at that time cars were
2:30
getting a lot more complex the harness
2:32
was were very uh complex so we had to
2:34
make sure that the right wiring
2:36
harnesses and connectors were being
2:37
delivered so everything could be
2:39
attached to the car properly on the
2:41
assembly line other things that we
2:43
looked at were wheels and wheel covers
2:45
alignment settings when the cars came
2:47
off the line the wheels had to be
2:49
aligned so the alignment settings were
2:50
even included and of course the most
2:52
important thing was paint codes and
2:54
color compatibility of course you didn't
2:56
want to get on the line and have a a
2:58
blue car coming down the line and a a
3:01
red bumper being stuck on it so this was
3:03
also very important that we had a look
3:05
and make sure that all the paint codes
3:07
of all the parts that were coming in
3:09
that were prepainted would match up just
3:11
in time with the cars that were coming
3:13
down the line so the colors were
3:14
consistent so that was all part of the
3:16
quality process that was in the plan so
3:19
once the cars were complete they would
3:21
go through their own Quality Inspection
3:22
which did not involve supplier quality
3:24
but was done by a different group and
3:26
then the cars would be made ready for
3:28
transport across the country to
3:30
different dealerships so if you enjoyed
3:33
this video please be sure to make sure
3:34
to like And subscribe and if you want to
3:36
leave a comment below please do thank
3:39
you very much for
3:42
[Music]
3:43
watching this is Dave and I'd like to
3:46
talk to you just briefly about the
3:48
Newark plant in Delaware Chrysler bought
3:50
it in 1938 as a Parts Depot they started
3:54
converting it to tank production in 1951
3:57
and then the Korean war ended and they
3:59
started started phasing out the tank
4:01
business and phasing in cars and they
4:03
eventually made 7 million cars in 1956
4:08
with the Korean war ended the tank plant
4:09
started a 5-year phase out process and
4:12
the 1 and a.2 million s foot Plymouth
4:14
plant started construction they built
4:16
their first 67,000 plymouths in 1957 the
4:20
last tank was made in
4:21
1961 and then the second shift joined
4:24
the Plymouth plant which had its
4:25
millionth car
4:27
1965 in 1980 during crisis brush with
4:30
bankruptcy Delaware was the first state
4:32
to approve loaning Chrysler money in
4:34
this case $5 million and that loan was
4:37
paid off really quickly and the plant
4:39
was quickly reted to build K cars in
4:42
1981 they had also made the libarian
4:45
coupen convertible in 1988 Chrysler
4:48
spent over $300 million to retool the
4:51
plant to build the Loosely K based
4:54
doublea body clouth Acclaim and Dodge
4:57
Spirit which were joined in 1990 by the
4:59
similar Chrysler learon in 1993 they
5:02
switched over to make the first Dodge
5:04
intrepids there in 1997 they put $623
5:08
million into the plant to get ready to
5:10
make the Dodge Durango when Durango and
5:13
Aspen sales fell Chrysler had just been
5:15
handed off to curus Capital Management
5:17
and they closed the plant and eventually
5:20
sold the property to the University of
5:22
Delaware which documented the plant
5:24
fully then demolished it rehabilitated
5:27
the property and built a new campus
5:29
extension there so it's a happier ending
5:31
than it could have been join Pete for
5:34
part five or go back to part three
5:37
because this is part four in a series
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