Chrysler’s Fenton plant on temporary idle this week

According to a friend of mine who handles the gateline at the Fenton Plant production for next week is still not in the system. He said “the only orders we are getting is from Marketing” hardly any trucks being built are for customer orders. Trucks are a high margin vehicle and the more that are built the better the bottom line looks according the the GAP used at Chrysler. Plus they did not want Fenton running while the Italian was in the country.
The current management at CTC does not plan very well so they could be calling people at home to let them know to enjoy another paid week off. The maintenance employees are in this week, working on the worse PM completion rates in the corporation at this plant.

Say,’Next week in Doubt CTC’; why didn’t they want Fenton running while Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne (to whom I presume you’re referring) was in the U.S.? Please explain.

New York Times reporting that Chrysler is preparing for bankruptcy. They quoted a source in the Treasury that a deal has been worked out with UAW (pension plans and health care plans).

It is also being reported that the Italian is talking about Opel with GM and a business week column suggested that he should go after Saturn. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is backing out. He essentially was asking them to give them a part of Chrysler for nothing.

They did not want Fenton running while Sergio was in town showing just how inept a corporation they are by keeping Fenton running when they could add a shift at Warren Trucka and eliminate the entire Fenton operation and sell off that location as an asset to the Chinese. Whom by the way have been seen there on tours of the facilities. FYI.

According to Ward’s Automotive there is a 109 day supply of Ram Trucks. That is nearly 4 months supply. Warren Truck only ran one shift last week as well, shutting down 1st shift and only running 2nd.
They need to idle all truck plants for at least 8 weeks and run that inventory down. That is what a good business operating on SMART principles of a pull strategy would do? Oh wait Chrysler is a SMART based company. Talk the talk, but they do NOT walk the walk. Good luck

Say, mpat, what do you think about the latest CAW concessions…?…by the way, do you know anything about tooling in Brampton…?…the company said earlier that they’d spend a billion (cdn) if they got what they wanted from the union and senior governments in Canada….any thoughts…?…anyone…?

Canadiens Fan, I spent a year in Brampton back in 2003 through 2004. All of the automation, IE robots and controllers were removed and put in circus tents, the weld guns were removed and new weld guns or material handling end effectors were placed on these robots originally installed in 1996 for the LH Launch. The body shop got all new transfer systems for the underbody and aperture DDH was scabbed together with old robots and new fixtures. They spent no where near a billion dollars on that Launch. Now it is 2009, the robots there are 13 years old and although robust 8633’s they cannot last forever, nor can the supply of parts for them.
I headed up the Underbody installation and my company was paid just over 30 million for half the body shop. Most of that was manpower to supervise the plant skilled trades who did a good job once JS Alberici got done sitting everything in place and wiring the new PIP panels.
SINCE TAKING THE BUYOUT I AM NOW NOT ALLOWED TO WORK IN ANY CHRYSLER PLANT. There just are not that many jobs out there for major integration managers. That is what I know about Brampton. YES it needs some new robots. But a BILLION dollars is a FAT number.

How long is this article going to run?

IDLED FOREVER AND A DAY.