Diary of a Chrysler Parts Supplier

Who wants to buy a car built by pissed off workers at a company run by bean counters first and engineers second? Are we supposed to pony up 10s of thousands of our dollars for these cars to show our solidarity with the union and our patriotism for American jobs? I don't think so.

These are purely anecdotal stories shared with me by coworkers working directly on various projects with auto makers. I worked for a company that built automated assembly and test systems. Our guys could not get our machine calibrated and began measuring all of the parts that came from Ford (Visteon). Big differences between the parts' machined dimensions from part to part. Their guys explained they were good enough and our guys had to alter the machine to cope costing more money. These by the way parts going on the Focus engine. Another story: coworker at same company told me how at a previous job at a similar company they had built what amounted to a refrigerator to chill plastic Chrysler air conditioner clips which were brittle and prone to snap on the assembly line. Chilling them kept them from snapping. Of course the engine bay is what temperature under normal use? How about a better clip design? Yes my experience with Ford, Visteon and Chrysler has been "it's good enough". Not in all departments though. Visteon had some very dedicated people looking at CAD drawings and would flunk them for minutia that did not even relate to the sizing of the parts (numbering would flunk a drawing but then it should too). That said I know some of our guys had a "good enough attitude" too. We might point fingers at the big 2.8 but it might be an intrinsic problem right to the core of American business. I'm a perfectionist myself but that is not necessarily an economical attitude to have in all situations. It's a balancing act. A friend who works for a Japanese rubber component company (motor mounts, bushings, etc) says their Asian customers are much more picky than their domestic customers. Asian customers check parts coming into the building and if one flunks the whole pallet goes back to the manufacturer to be tested and certified. As a customer that's the kind of parts I want my car built with and why I think my Honda is doing so well at 151K miles (made in Japan) and my VW is falling apart at 151K miles (Hencho in Mexico). VW Update: my gas tank is leaking today... Likely a $20 seal where the fuel pump enters the top of the tank.

@ RF, My point wasn't that errors are acceptable but rather, it is expected that operators will do everything and anything to mess up the process (not that this is always true), hence most processes are poka yoked and/or controls are put in place to limit exposure to the customer from human error.

Chrysler used to have much better relations with its suppliers than Ford ro GM, thanks to Thomas Stallkamp and his SCORE system and the extended enterprise system. After the "merger" this system was dismantled, although it still exists on paper. This quote from Allpar.com tells it better than I could: http://www.allpar.com/history/extended-enterprise.html "Suppliers' trust in Chrysler - and their investments - were repaid by Dieter Zetsche's crude demands of 15 percent price cuts, across the board, from all suppliers. Suppliers who built plants in Brazil simply to supply Chrysler's new Dodge Dakota plant were told soon after construction that the plant was being shut down as part of Daimler's "rescue" of Chrysler, which had seen massive profits the year before, and had amassed an estimated $8 - 12 billion in cash to avoid having to resort to such actions. To quote one insider, "At this time, SCORE no longer exists-there are no more payments for innovation and cost reduction by suppliers. Under the current thinking and direction, suppliers are not to be trusted and are to be bullied at every opportunity to 'demonstrate who's boss.' Think Lopez at GM in the 1990s...." "