‘Different’ Chrysler zeroes in on quality

[rickaren]

‘Different’ Chrysler zeroes in on quality

Posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 1:24 PM EST. (Employee News)



Chrysler Group LLC is backing claims that it will be a quality leader by the end of 2012 with a revamped, refocused and much larger quality team, tougher standards and a commitment to achieving sustainable quality gains crucial to its long-term success by changing company culture, The Detroit News reported.

“It’s different now,” Doug Betts, senior vice president in charge of quality at Chrysler, told the News. “People are talking openly about problems now and how to fix (them.)”

In an exclusive interview Wednesday with The Detroit News, Betts said changing Chrysler’s culture to collectively attack quality problems has been as difficult—and essential—as making better cars. Uneven product quality has been Chrysler’s Achilles heel for decades and addressing the problem a top priority under a series of corporate owners and chief executives, the paper said.

Most recently, Cerberus Capital Management LP pledged change and two years ago recruited Betts from Nissan Motor Co. to get it done, but Chrysler ran out of money and ultimately into bankruptcy, the paper said. Today, he says, there is company-wide support for doing what it takes to improve quality and everything from management structures to manufacturing processes has been overhauled, the story said. (The Detroit News)

[rickaren]

Nov 19th 2009

A quick glance at recent Consumer Reports or JD Power data shows that the Pentastar has a big problem on its hands, but the new Chrysler says that will change in a big way by the end of 2012. Chrysler is planning to be a quality leader in only three years by dramatically increasing staffing levels in its quality team while working to dramatically clean up its engineering processes. Just one year ago, there were only 200 staff members on the quality team. Chrysler is now hiring 200 additional workers and shifting head count to beef up its quality team to over 1,700.

Quality boss Doug Betts, who was hired from Nissan during the Cerberus acquistion, tried to address quality before the automaker descended into bankruptcy, but Chrysler's woeful money situation led to the postponement of the Pentastar's long overdue quality renaissance. With bankruptcy in the rearview mirror and Fiat's full blessing to dig deep to fix Chrysler's competitive disadvantages, Betts now has the tools needed to make drastic changes. And some progress has already been made.

For starters, Chrysler has cut per-vehicle spending by $240 million, and warranty spending is down 30 percent to an all-time low. In 2008, 75 percent of all quality problems were design issues, and that number has reportedly dropped to 50 percent this year though better engineering. The factory floor is also receiving attention, as Chrysler is adopting Fiat's "world class" manufacturing system.

Chrysler has also made several departmental shifts to give workers more autonomy to make changes faster. In the past, problems were shifted from one department to another, resulting in an average delay of 71 days to fix a problem. Now cross-departmental teams are organized by 14 vehicle groups, like brakes or transmissions instead of by model alone. Many of the quality fixes will occur as Chrysler unveils new or heavily updated products between now and 2013. The Detroit News reports that 75 percent of all models will receive heavy duty attention within the next 14 months, and all vehicles will be updated by 2013.


LINK: REPORT: Chrysler pledges to be quality leader by 2012 — Autoblog