Pawley to Quit DaimlerChrysler

Dennis K. Pawley, the Chrysler executive credited with turning the auto maker’s assembly and parts plants into some of the industry’s most efficient, said Friday he will retire from the newly merged DaimlerChrysler to become a manufacturing consultant.

Pawley, 57, will leave as vice president of North American manufacturing and labor relations Jan. 31, two months after Chrysler and Germany’s Daimler-Benz merged to become the world’s fifth-largest auto maker.

He said his retirement had nothing to do with the merger and that his decision was made a year ago before the merger was ever discussed. After the merger was announced in May, Chrysler executives asked him to stay on longer, but he declined.

“It really has become a lifestyle decision for me,” Pawley said during a teleconference. “It’s time for me to give more time to myself, my family and my friends.”

Pawley will become co-owner, president and chief operating officer of Performance Learning Inc., a corporate training company based in Las Vegas, where he will live. He also will work with the manufacturing consulting firm of Harbour & Associates Inc. in Troy, Mich., outside Detroit.

For the last seven years, Pawley’s main goal as executive vice president of Chrysler has been to implement a more efficient, Japanese-style manufacturing system, which has saved the company millions of dollars. He also is the company’s point man with the United Auto Workers and Canadian Auto Workers unions and got workers more involved in manufacturing decisions.

A successor has not been named.

Separately Friday, a Japanese newspaper said DaimlerChrysler will pay Nissan Motor Co. about $168 million this month for a 33.4% controlling stake in Nissan’s struggling truck-making affiliate, Nissan Diesel Motor Co.

A spokesman for DaimlerChrysler said, however, that talks are still being held and a decision isn’t likely before DaimlerChrysler’s full supervisory board is formed in the third week of December.