The FCA Brampton Assembly plant awarded bronze status

Chrysler Brampton Assembly Plant

The FCA US Brampton Assembly Plant is seeing bronze.

The auto assembly facility in Brampton has been awarded bronze status for its efforts in implementing World Class Manufacturing (WCM) and the 13th North American facility to receive this designation.

The Ontario, Canada, plant earned bronze after a two-day audit on Dec. 17 and 18 during which it earned a minimum of 50 points in 10 technical and 10 managerial pillars by demonstrating clear WCM know-how and competence through employee-conducted pillar presentations and a review of projects that have been implemented across the shop floor.

“The key to successfully implementing WCM is the engagement of the workforce,” said Brian Harlow, Vice President – Manufacturing, FCA North America. “By achieving bronze, the Brampton employees have demonstrated their commitment to making improvements in their operations, which translate into providing quality vehicles for our customers.

“With the support of our Unifor partners, FCA is continuing its progress toward making our manufacturing facilities among the best in the world,” said Harlow.

World Class Manufacturing is a methodology that focuses on eliminating waste, increasing productivity, and improving quality and safety in a systematic and organized way. WCM engages the workforce to provide and implement suggestions on how to improve their jobs and their plants, promoting a sense of ownership. WCM was first implemented by Fiat in 2006 and introduced to Chrysler Group as part of the alliance between the two companies in June 2009.

During an audit, zero to five points are awarded for each of the 10 technical pillars, which include safety, workplace organization, logistics and the environment, and for each of the 10 managerial pillars, such as management commitment, clarity of objectives, allocation of people, motivation of operators and commitment of the organization. A score of 85 would indicate World Class.

Two WCM-certified auditors from FCA, the Vice President of Manufacturing for CNH Industrial – IVECO and the Unit Manager at the CNH Industrial – IVECO Valladolid Plant, performed the audit.

Windsor Assembly Plant received the WCM silver designation in March 2014.

The Brampton plant was built in 1986 and acquired by Chrysler Corporation with the purchase of American Motors Corporation (AMC) in August 1987. Since then, the plant has built a number of full-size cars, including the “LH”-designated vehicles – the Chrysler Concorde, Dodge Intrepid and Eagle Vision; Chrysler LHS and 300M; Chrysler 300, Dodge Magnum, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger, including the most powerful and fastest muscle car ever, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. More than 3,600 employees work at the plant on two shifts. In 2014, Brampton built nearly 223,000 vehicles.

For more information, visit www.fcacanada.ca.