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In the Chrysler Plants: CudaPete on Quality Engineering, Part 4
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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
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1988 and that was for the 1989 Dodge
0:46
Spirit Plymouth Acclaim so once I got to
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the plant as part of supplier quality
0:52
part of my responsibility was to make
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sure that the parts were being delivered
0:56
correctly and that the plant was
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receiving quality items so I Would Walk
1:00
the Line every day and look at what was
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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
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issues I would have to report back and
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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
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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
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so that it was easily accessible and
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that you can reference it as need needed
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so what would be included in this book
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we had things like the AA body sales
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codes the AA body sales
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packages vehicle identification plate
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and body code plate how do how to
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interpret those uh we had the body and
1:46
white parts list and the assembly
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information and tolerances so this way
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you could go over to the body shop and
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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
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interesting interesting because a lot of
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it was automated and the welding was
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done by robots so you had to make sure
2:05
that the parts were in the right place
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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
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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
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was were very uh complex so we had to
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make sure that the right wiring
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harnesses and connectors were being
2:37
delivered so everything could be
2:39
attached to the car properly on the
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assembly line other things that we
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looked at were wheels and wheel covers
2:45
alignment settings when the cars came
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off the line the wheels had to be
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aligned so the alignment settings were
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even included and of course the most
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important thing was paint codes and
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color compatibility of course you didn't
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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
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also very important that we had a look
3:05
and make sure that all the paint codes
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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
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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
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once the cars were complete they would
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go through their own Quality Inspection
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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
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talk to you just briefly about the
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Newark plant in Delaware Chrysler bought
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it in 1938 as a Parts Depot they started
3:54
converting it to tank production in 1951
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and then the Korean war ended and they
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started started phasing out the tank
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business and phasing in cars and they
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eventually made 7 million cars in 1956
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with the Korean war ended the tank plant
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started a 5-year phase out process and
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the 1 and a.2 million s foot Plymouth
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plant started construction they built
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their first 67,000 plymouths in 1957 the
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last tank was made in
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1961 and then the second shift joined
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the Plymouth plant which had its
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millionth car
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1965 in 1980 during crisis brush with
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bankruptcy Delaware was the first state
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to approve loaning Chrysler money in
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this case $5 million and that loan was
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paid off really quickly and the plant
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was quickly reted to build K cars in
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1981 they had also made the libarian
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coupen convertible in 1988 Chrysler
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spent over $300 million to retool the
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plant to build the Loosely K based
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doublea body clouth Acclaim and Dodge
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Spirit which were joined in 1990 by the
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similar Chrysler learon in 1993 they
5:02
switched over to make the first Dodge
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intrepids there in 1997 they put $623
5:08
million into the plant to get ready to
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make the Dodge Durango when Durango and
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Aspen sales fell Chrysler had just been
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handed off to curus Capital Management
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and they closed the plant and eventually
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sold the property to the University of
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Delaware which documented the plant
5:24
fully then demolished it rehabilitated
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the property and built a new campus
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extension there so it's a happier ending
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than it could have been join Pete for
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part five or go back to part three
5:37
because this is part four in a series
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