| Belvidere | |
| Belvidere Assembly Plant | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Illinois |
| Coordinates | |
| Established | 1965 |
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Location of Belvidere Assembly Plant
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The Belvidere Assembly Plant is a Chrysler factory in Belvidere, Illinois, United States that assembles vehicles. The factory opened in 1965.
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The factory was completed in 1965 in the south part of Belvidere, Illinois adjacent to U.S. Route 20. The factory is designated the Belvidere Assembly Plant and is adjacent to the Chrysler operated Belvidere Satellite Stamping Plant. The stamping plant produces sheet metal parts for the production line.[1] The factory has 3,300,000 square feet (310,000 m2) of floor space over 280 acres (1.1 km2) of land. The factory had produced 5.9 million vehicles by the end of the 1993 model year.[2]
In 2006, the factory became the first Chrysler plant to use a body shop consisting entirely of robotics. There are 780 robots in the body shop can make necessary tool changes automatically, within a 45-second cycle time. The factory is capable of building 3 models of vehicles as well as a test-building a fourth vehicle.[3]
The Simulation (SIM) Room comprises 38,000 square feet (3,500 m2) of the factory and is used to create a miniature production process and to test the layout of job stations, and creating standard work instructions. A two foot grid is painted on the floor to measure dimensions and employee walk-time during simulated production and efficiency modeling.[4]
4,000 employees worked at the plant in 1985.[5] 3,250 hourly and 250 salaried employees worked at the factory on November 10, 1993, at the start of the Neon car production.[2] 2,650 employees worked at the factory at the start of 2007 model year Jeep Compass production[3] up from 1,700 in 2005 when one shift of employees was in place.[4] However, the third shift, which was first instituted in 2006, was discontinued in 2008.[6]
The workforce is represented by the United Auto Workers, Local 1268 and 1761. There have been two UAW-ordered strikes in the plant's history. In 1973, there was a 9 day strike over the right to turn down overtime, pension funding, and health and safety measures. In 1981, there was a 9 day strike to receive pay parity with Ford and GM workers. Chrysler proposed eliminating several job classifications so workers could be required to perform more than one task.[5]
Kurt Kavajecz is the plant manager.[7]
In 2005, the factory was the recipient of Plant Engineering's Top Plant Award for efficient turnover in the changeover from Neon production to Caliber production.[8]
American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine's (ACOEM) Corporate Health Achievement Award awarded to the Chrysler Group after a tour of Belvidere Assembly Plant.[4]
National Safety Council 2004 Green Cross for Safety.[4]
Union Pacific provides rail freight service to the plant.[9]
It was converted to produce the Neon in 1993. Neon production ended on September 23, 2005. The attached Belvidere Satellite Stamping facility opened that same year; it stamps out all sheet metal parts for the production line. Chrysler recalled 1,000 laid off factory workers on March 14, 2006, to begin production on the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Patriot and Jeep Compass.
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The plant is located at 3000 West Chrysler Drive.
In 2009 the future of the plant was uncertain.[10] Haig Stoddard, a Global Insight analyst, cited the plant as one of three plants that was being considered in a plan to close one plant.[11]
In October 2010, it was announced that $600 million is to be invested into the Belvidere Assembly Plant in preparation for 2012-model-year vehicles to be built there. [12] In December 2011 it was announced that the Belvidere Assembly plant would be building the Dodge Dart, based on a Fiat design.