Chrysler LLC is reported to be looking at energy cost savings including a possible change to four-day, 10-hour work weeks at some factories.
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“We’re looking at doing four 10s across the shops to help reduce energy costs,” Chrysler executive vice president of manufacturing Frank Ewasyshyn told the Detroit Free Press newspaper.
The report said a shorter working week had been suggested earlier this summer by a local county executive Brooks Patterson as an option for employees and has since spread to other governments and private businesses.
There have been recent reports on US network news broadcasts of a number of local government offices switching to four-day, 10-hour weeks, closing up completely on Friday to reduce energy costs.
“For us, it’s a big energy savings,” Ewasyshyn told the Free Press, “just as it is for employees with gasoline in their cars.”
The report said Chrysler also is looking at a variety of energy savings ideas, from optimising tyre pressure in shipping vehicles to talking with retail companies about sharing freight space.
“With the rising fuel costs, everybody is looking for new ways. … It’s about every ounce of energy you consume,” Ewasyshyn said.
Plant energy usage is down 15% on a per-vehicle basis, according to Chrysler.
The Detroit Free Press said the automaker is looking at ways to save on freight costs by teaming up with retail companies running empty trucks in directions that Chrysler needs deliveries and vice versa.
“We’ve been talking to people who have routes parallel to ours that are going one place to another in the opposite direction full and coming back empty. We’re looking at opportunities to fill that and go the other way,” Ewasyshyn said.
The report said a shortened working week at Chrysler would help it save money in both obvious ways and in ways unique to a complicated manufacturing facility. For example, an assembly plant’s large paint ovens can’t be completely turned off during a normal five-day working week.
“But you go to … a three-day weekend, you can take it down cold, turn it right off. There’s no problem. That saves a lot of natural gas, a lot of electricity,” Ewasyshyn told the Free Press.
He added the automaker is talking with the UAW about going to a four-day working week but couldn’t provide a timeframe for possible rollout or a savings estimate but added it wouldn’t affect workers’ pay.
A Chrysler spokesman told the Free Press he expected plant workers to “jump at” the opportunity to work a shorter week.
