The year was 1994 when a young couple decided to purchase their first SUV, a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The SUV craze was just getting started then and I remember the Jeep was the hottest vehicle on the market. Last week I visited Chrysler’s Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit, Michigan for the launch of the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. This plant helped feed the SUV craze both then and now, but I noticed on the plant tour that a lot has changed since 1994, both in how they assemble the vehicle and in how parts are supplied to the plant.
Just in time delivery of sequenced parts is now the norm in building vehicles, and seeing behind the scenes of how a new vehicle build is handled was really cool. Quality issues are addressed immediately when they arise. The number of quality checks on the build of a vehicle is amazing. Every function from opening the door to the performance of the engine is tested and retested. I think the size of the wiring harness is testament to the amount of technology used in vehicles of today.
After experiencing this plant tour I could not help but recall the story of a CEO who was running a large company that had weekly meetings with report outs from all of the different departments, Finance, Sales, Engineering, Customer service, and finally Quality. The meetings were long and they seemed to always run out of time before the Quality Department could report out. He demanded that from now on Quality would report out first. After the change not only did Quality get to report, but after a while all the other reports got shorter as they focused on the quality issues first.
As a 3PL we work with a variety of industries, including automotive, and quality definitely ranks at the top of our customers concerns. When you’ve spent years building up trust, quality issues can ruin relationships in a hurry. I think the lesson learned in the automotive industry by U.S. carmakers when it comes to quality is something all industries can learn from.
With an attention towards quality there are a lot of people expecting great things from the new Chrysler and the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. This can only be good news for the young couples of today looking for the next cool SUV.