Last Friday, 30 June, was the last day of production at Chrysler’s Toledo Parkway Assembly Plant, the oldest in the US.
After 64 years of manufacturing Jeeps at the Parkway facility, Chrysler Group has relocated production of the Wrangler to its new, $US2.1bn Toledo Supplier Park and is adding a new, four-door Unlimited version to the range.
Toledo Supplier Park, adjacent to the Toledo North Assembly Plant, is operated by Chrysler and three supplier partners: Magna International’s Magna Steyr, Kuka Group and Hyundai Mobis-owned Ohio Module Manufacturing Corp. (OMMC).
It is the first North American operation to have three major vehicle- building operations (body shop, paint shop and chassis assembly) owned or operated by suppliers but there was a last-minute glitch with the paint shop.
Now-bankrupt Haden Prism was originally in charge of that, but its parent company was forced into US Chapter VII insolvency earlier this year, leaving painting in the lurch. Chrysler temporarily stepped in until Magna Steyr came on board.
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By GlobalDataChrysler handles final trim and assembly, the Kuka Group builds the Wrangler bodies and Hyundai Mobis (through OMMC) assembles the Jeep’s chassis.
All four facilities were completed earlier this year and have been producing pilot parts since April.
The Jeep Wrangler was formerly built at the Toledo Assembly Plant comprised of the Parkway and Stickney locations.
“The closing of Toledo Parkway clearly marks the end of an important era in our history,” said Chrysler manufacturing chief Frank Ewasyshyn.
“But it also opens the door for us to modernise our facilities while ensuring that our Toledo employees have a stronger future. [On Friday you saw] you see the oldest auto plant in the US producing its last vehicle. Tomorrow, in its place will stand one of the most innovative manufacturing complexes in automotive history.”
Toledo’s modern, four-vehicle manufacturing portfolio – with the capability to add more models – contrasts with the one-product town that characterised Toledo less than a decade ago. By summer 2006, the two plants will be building two- and four-door Wranglers, the Liberty (exported as the Cherokee) and Dodge’s new Jeep-based Nitro.
The Supplier Park brings enhanced manufacturing technology to Toledo, Ohio, and gives the plant the flexibility to build multiple vehicles on the same production line.
After an initial investment of $1.2bn to build the first of the two modern Toledo plants – Toledo North – DaimlerChrysler last year announced that it would invest an additional $600m at Toledo North, giving the plant the flexibility to add Dodge Nitro assembly to the line that has been producing the Jeep Liberty since 2001.
That investment also led to a third manufacturing shift, added more than 160,000 square feet, new equipment, new conveyors, as well as important new processes that will contribute to the plant’s productivity and quality.
The 2.1m square-foot Toledo North Assembly Plant occupies 200 acres and has more than 2,700 employees working two shifts, with the third shift of approximately 750 employees to begin in the third quarter. Groundbreaking of Toledo North began in autumn 1997.
A third DaimlerChrysler plant is located in nearby Perrysburg, Ohio. The Toledo Machining Plant opened in 1967 and produces steering columns and torque converters.
The Toledo Parkway facility has served as a local manufacturing landmark and has been a manufacturing site of the Jeep brand since 1942.
Jeep Parkway is North America’s oldest manufacturing facility – originally opening in 1910 – and the original Jeep assembly plant.
The facility – a familiar Toledo sight with its two brick smokestacks bearing the name “Overland” – traces its history back to the Pope Motor Car Co, before it was purchased by John North Willys and combined with the Overland Automotive Division to form the Willys- Overland Motor Company in 1912. Parkway began producing Jeep military vehicles in the early 1940s before switching over to the Civilian Jeep (CJ) in 1945. It was renamed the Toledo Assembly Plant after Chrysler purchased American Motors in 1987.
The plant actually consists of two interconnected units, the Stickney Plant and the Parkway Annex. In recent years, basic assembly and painting of the Jeep Wrangler has been done in the Parkway facility. The less-than-ideal setup at the old operation included operations spread through a warren of buildings and required that vehicles and components be moved through multiple building levels. Final assembly of vehicles took place at Stickney, but facility constraints required that bodies first be painted at Parkway and then moved through tunnels and across bridges to reach the assembly line.
About a third of the Jeep Parkway annex was demolished in 2002. The date of the final Parkway demolition will be decided later.
The Stickney Plant was built in 1942 by Autolite and sold to Kaiser-Jeep in 1964. It was used as a machining and engine plant until 1981 when it was converted for vehicle production. It began producing the Jeep Grand Wagoneer that year until the end of 1991 when final assembly of the Jeep Wrangler moved there.
