Production Going Digital at Chrysler

Chrysler Corp. on Monday introduced a new digital manufacturing system it hopes will shave months off vehicle development time, save the auto maker millions and give it a jump on the competition.

The No. 3 U.S. car maker’s new production system will result in vehicles being developed two to four months sooner and savings of more than $20 million per assembly plant, said Dan Vandenbossche, Chrysler’s manager of manufacturing technical support.

The system was shown by Chrysler and suppliers, including Rockwell International Corp., in conjunction with an industry engineering conference in Detroit.

With the new system, Chrysler said it hopes to break bottlenecks in assembly plants and improve vehicle quality and communication among its manufacturing, engineering and supplier personnel.

It also is shooting to cut vehicle development time. The auto maker’s current standard is 23 months, the time it took to develop the Dodge Durango sport-utility vehicle. In contrast, 10 years ago the standard was five years, Vandenbossche said.

He declined to say whether the technology would be shared with Daimler-Benz, Chrysler’s merger partner under a deal announced last week.