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Flexible Manufacturing

In the toughest, most competitive global climate ever, it’s more important than ever to manage rising costs by changing the way we do business. Throughout Chrysler, we are refocusing and redoubling efforts to deliver the highest quality products to our customers.

We’re making progress, but more needs to be done for us to be, and remain, competitive. For example, since 2000 labor costs for UAW-represented employees have shot up an average of 9.7%, while costs for the Japanese transplants grew an average 3.3% for the same period.

And, as the graph on the left details, that’s just one of many key areas that need addressing.

Chrysler's Flexible Manufacturing Strategy (FMS) allows the company to produce higher quality products faster, and for a lower cost. In order to balance production with demand, the FMS approach allows the company to efficiently build lower-volume vehicles that take advantage of market niche, and quickly shift production volumes between different models within a single plant or among multiple plants.

A key weapon in Chrysler’s competitive manufacturing arsenal is WOM, or the Workplace Organization Model. It’s a Smart Manufacturing “tool box” the company has rolled out, designed to help us meet our goal of world-class operations excellence through supporting the operator.

Smart manufacturing is the name of the new workplace model we’re using to boost plant flexibility while improving safety, quality, delivery, cost and employee morale.In addition to extensive training, the new workplace model promotes employee involvement in all facets in the design and processing of work stations.