Chrysler LLC shuts down its plants for a month.
- Thread starter Stijloor
- Start date
My sister was just informed a couple of hours ago that she is on indefinite layoff. She doesn't even know if she'll be going back when they reopen.
S
somerqc
I grew up in Windsor, Ontario (Cari - yep just on the other side of the river) - the location of the Chrysler LLC Minivan plant in Canada (I believe the other one is in Kentucky or Tennessee).
Windsor was also the location of MANY more Detroit 3 plants when I lived there (all since have pretty much closed or operate on skeleton staffs).
I can verify that yes the suppliers are hurting severely due to this. In the last couple of years, the number of tool & die and plastics factories that feed the auto industry have dramatically decreased.
The ones that are still open are offering wages that are a fraction of what the workers have been used to.
This action will only add the final nail to those that are just hanging one. I am just glad my father is retired for a number of years now - otherwise I am sure he would have been a victim of this recession by now.
Wish me luck in celebrating with my family & friends during the holidays - probably will be much less celebrating this year.
John
Windsor was also the location of MANY more Detroit 3 plants when I lived there (all since have pretty much closed or operate on skeleton staffs).
I can verify that yes the suppliers are hurting severely due to this. In the last couple of years, the number of tool & die and plastics factories that feed the auto industry have dramatically decreased.
The ones that are still open are offering wages that are a fraction of what the workers have been used to.
This action will only add the final nail to those that are just hanging one. I am just glad my father is retired for a number of years now - otherwise I am sure he would have been a victim of this recession by now.
Wish me luck in celebrating with my family & friends during the holidays - probably will be much less celebrating this year.
John
Helmut Jilling
Auditor / Consultant
We'll certainly wish you luck. But I think the main reasons for so many auto plants being sourced to Canada was for years the Canadian dollar was much less than the US$, so it made financial sense. Also, there might have been a better work ethic than Detroit had in the 90's. As these two variables changed, there was less to support the Canadian plants.
On the other hand, I think the Detroit 3 do way too much moving work around. Each time they resource, it consumes a lot of cost for a while till it stabilizes. The moves should be for significant reasons, not 2 cent differences. I believe this is a big source of the malaise in automotive today. The Japaness model is a good bit more loyal and collaborative.
(Just for kicks, the eighth point of the 8 Leadership Principles on which ISO 9001 is founded is "Mutually beneficial supply chain relationships." WOW! Wish they would read that one! There is a lot of money in that one!
While all this debate has been going on for days now, especially about the cost structures of the B3, there have been (and remain) some pretty obvious things they could have addressed, along the lines that Helmut is posting about. For example, why have a stamping plant in Twinsburg, OH, which supplies the Newark Delaware truck plant? How can that compare to the Warren truck plant with a (contiguous) stamping plant? It seems crazy to me that these blantantly inefficient situations exist, yet they keep pounding on suppliers.....
In Automotive news, it's been announced that Chrysler's dumping their (new) seat supplier in India! What did that little piece of 'cost saving' cost them? I bet all the APQP stuff was done - for nothing! What about those mutually beneficial supplier relationships? Now they have to go back to Lear and I hope that the Lear folks make them grovel for it!!
Happily, the Chrysler Puchasing "big dog" is resigning - what a great legacy to leave behind! He surely p*ssed off a bunch of suppliers, even threatening court cases on them......I doubt that even under TARP - if the right people knew how much is really wasted on futile 'bright ideas' like this, that they'd get the money they claim they need.
In Automotive news, it's been announced that Chrysler's dumping their (new) seat supplier in India! What did that little piece of 'cost saving' cost them? I bet all the APQP stuff was done - for nothing! What about those mutually beneficial supplier relationships? Now they have to go back to Lear and I hope that the Lear folks make them grovel for it!!
Happily, the Chrysler Puchasing "big dog" is resigning - what a great legacy to leave behind! He surely p*ssed off a bunch of suppliers, even threatening court cases on them......I doubt that even under TARP - if the right people knew how much is really wasted on futile 'bright ideas' like this, that they'd get the money they claim they need.
Helmut Jilling
Auditor / Consultant
...all we need to do to get all the children to learn how to play well together in the sandbox...and a lot of this would be resolved.
I blame the armies of accountants who have no shop floor experience, trying to micro-manage with their stupid formulas. Let the plant managers mange their plants.
And make your purchasing people play well and fairly with suppliers.
Peace on (automotive) earth, goodwill to all suppliers... we can get through this with better ideas and manners.
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