After taking the Chrysler Plant tour last Thursday in Bramalea, Ontario
Canada... I have to say that I was completely impressed and amazed. In this
particular plant is where all the Intrepid, 300M, LHS and Concordes are
made. Apparently this plant just completed their 2 millionth car the other
day.
The plant was like a small city and the robotics used were awesome. All the
welding is done by these robots and the speed and accuracy at which they
work made me speechless. The other thing that caught my eye were these
unmanned forklifts running around picking up and delivering parts. They are
all computer controlled, but it was very strange seeing all these vehicle
running around without drivers. The whole experience kind of reminded me of
being inside a "Borg" ship from Star Trek :-)
I understood the concept of the "unibody" but never completely realized that
these cars all start out their lives as the exact same thing. They just
keep pumping them out without even knowing what car they will become in the
beginning.
I also didn't know that all of these cars for all over the world are all
made right here. They pump out a completed car every 47 seconds and each
car from start to finish takes 17 hours. Funny how it can take most
mechanics longer than that to just change a transmission. So my question
is... why does it take so many weeks before the vehicle you order is finally
delivered to a person? :-)
Our tour group was rather small (around 12 people), which I rather liked.
This gave me (the inquisitive DMLer), a chance to ask many questions and the
plant manager (at least I think that's who he was) managed to answer all my
questions and was very pleasant and knowledgeable. Of course I also managed
to promote the DML to him and told him of our group of Dakota enthusiast.
He said he would go check out our site :-)
As impressed as I was, I could never live my life on an assembly line. 12
minutes for a break, 17 minutes for lunch, never being able to leave your
position unless relieved, doing the same step, such as installing a door
over and over and over again every 17 seconds. Not even getting the chance
to do a different door :-). I guess it's ok for some, but I have a problem
with getting bored on the job and need constant variety or I become a very
unhappy camper. I applaud the people that can do it though, as they did do
this job with precision and excellence.
All in all, it was a fantastic tour... 2 1/2 hours long & about 3 miles of
walking. I really enjoyed myself and learned so very much. I'm still
relatively speechless.
TTYL,
Norah
current: '98 Dakota Sport black 4x4 CC V8/5.2L/Auto
current: '95 Dakota Sport white 4x4 Reg Cab V6/3.9L/5spd
RIP: '95 Dakota Sport black 4x2 CC V6/3.9L/Auto
previous: '93 Dakota blue 4x2 CC V6/3.9L/Auto
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