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JNAP 2010: Launching the Jeep Grand Cherokee at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant
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Feb 4, 2025
J.P. Joans’ original videos from the tour of that time, now with Dave’s audio commentary! Went back to the original footage for higher resolution.
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0:01
this footage was taken in
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2010 and that explains why it's not in
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4k and why the video is a little shaky
0:12
and such because it was done on an
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ordinary camera or a cell phone 13 years
0:18
ago now by JP Jones at a press tour of
0:22
the Jefferson North assembly plant or
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jnap or Jefferson North which was then
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just starting to make the 2011 Jeep
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Grand Cherokee which was a big deal at
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the time now what you're seeing is a
0:34
very small amount of this huge plant and
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here's an outside shot from Jefferson
0:39
Avenue to show what it looked like and
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this plant is close to the Mac Avenue
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engine plants I really can't convey the
0:47
scale very easily as for the Grand
0:50
Cherokee itself you could be forgiven if
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you thought that you were looking at a
0:53
Chrysler 300C it is really nice in there
0:57
very elegant design
1:03
so here we are back inside the plant and
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inside it's very very noisy outside it's
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dead silent and you can't hear a thing
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which is really pretty amazing so here
1:12
are the robots and what they appear to
1:14
be doing is either welding without any
1:18
visible Sparks or otherwise sealing
1:21
openings in these bodies and they do
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that automatically this used to be done
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in you know in the' 70s this was largely
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done by human beings and it's become all
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robotized so these plants that used to
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have enormous numbers of workers are now
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enormous numbers of robots and far fewer
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workers obviously there are advantages
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in terms of the robots being far more
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predictable in what they do as long as
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you program them properly they can
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actually do a better job of assembly a
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more consistent job of assembly up there
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you can see the flashes as they're
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welding so it's a pretty impressive
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operation just a quick little Arc weld
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from the robots as they go through spot
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by spot making sure everything is put
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together properly so every weld is a
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perfect weld so that that's you know
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keep in mind that this is 13 years ago
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and even by then Chrysler had been
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designing their plants entirely on
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computer using 3D programs so that they
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could test all the robot movements to
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the extent of their ability they could
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make sure that the robots didn't hit
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people or other robots that there was no
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interference between robots and posts or
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other equipment they could test
2:34
everything and make sure it all worked
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while still in the computer program
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before they actually put anything
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together and the other thing to consider
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is that even back then Chrysler had Flex
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manufacturing they were beginning that
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before daimer took over and the idea
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there is that you have the same robot
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and it can change the tools on the tips
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of its hand hands so to speak and have
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different programming for various
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motions so that it can make more than
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one thing more than one vehicle and they
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actually had it so that they could make
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two related vehicles and one completely
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unrelated vehicle on the same assembly
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line without dropping a stitch so to
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speak without having any gaps and this
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was really pretty amazing so in this
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plant they would be able to make Grand
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Cherokees and Durango and here you see
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the vehicles as they go on the overhead
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conveyors
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now they use a skillet system don't ask
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me what the difference is because I
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don't know but having the vehicles go
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overhead is a great help ergonomically
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things have really Advanced since the
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60s and70s not to mention incredibly
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Advanced obviously since the original
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assembly lines and then the rolling
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assembly lines Ransom olds being the
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first to do a uh assembly line with his
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curv Dash olds mobile and then Henry for
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famously doing the first one with
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conveyors and Ford probably wouldn't
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have been able to do that except that uh
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employee of Thomas Edison's when he was
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doing his mining operations that never
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netted him a single penny but actually
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cost him pretty much his whole Fortune
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from the Electric Light Industry one of
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his employees developed the rubberized
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conveyor belts to replace the old canvas
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ones and so Ford was able to make use of
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those which made it practical to do
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automobile assembly on a conveyor belt
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assembly line so this is the body drop
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and this is one of the cooler things my
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guess is that they're just slowly
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ramping up and that eventually these
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body drops would be much much faster
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than what you're seeing they had really
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just started production when this tour
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began so everything's moving a bit
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slower than it normally
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would and of course there is Media here
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and you don't want to have things going
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at full speed while the media are around
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because there is a chance of
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injury really I find it pretty amazing
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that they still do body drops with
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unibody cars you know the uh
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transmission and engine are mounted
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together on one assembly and then the
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body drops onto it merges with it to
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make one vehicle still requires a bunch
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of manual intervention right now but
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that's probably going to get worked out
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as production continues
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way up above in a lot of places there
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are these plant status
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indicators it's a pretty good way of
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knowing exactly what parts of the plant
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are doing well and which parts are doing
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poorly as you can see carts move
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automatically on their own uh holding
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engine and transmission assemblies and
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such this is actually the entire lower
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part of the vehicle before it gets
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joined in the body
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drop so here JP is in a little cart with
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other journalists and uh he's just going
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alongside the assembly line you can see
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all the racks of Parts waiting to be
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installed there's an interesting
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Japanese system called pokeo where you
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give the workers exactly the right
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number of parts for each vehicle and if
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you have any parts left over or if you
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run out of Parts you know that you've
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done something wrong that's a very
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Demming way of thinking
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very clever so if somebody's supposed to
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put on five bolts they get a baggie of
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five volts for each car or a little box
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of five
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volts lot of the workers um you know you
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look at this and it looks like nobody's
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doing anything and you get that you know
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Union Factory workers are lazy thing if
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you're minded that way and of course
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that's because the plant hasn't really
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started full production so up above
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there in the ceiling that you saw a
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moment ago is the Executive offices
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and now we have the the media
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presentation from that day so you've got
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people from the union and you've got
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people from the company and then you've
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got the presentation of the car so one
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of the ones that they just finished
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comes down through the line or possibly
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a prototype that was made months ago
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it's impossible to tell and there's your
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new grand
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therapy now that's Governor gretan
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Whitmer and she actually did a lot to
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make sure this plant got upgraded as it
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was and was just hugging the head of the
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company Sergio
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Marion and she's going to give a little
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speech but we're not going to listen to
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it because the video is just about over
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thanks for listening
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