Chrysler: New massive paint shop sets 'future standard' for other facilities

Posted on July 17, 2013

STERLING HEIGHTS, MI-Chrysler Group LLC showed off its newest state-of-the-art paint shop Tuesday in Sterling Heights, which is expected to save the automaker a “significant” amount of money.

The all-new 425,000 square-foot paint shop (nearly 898,00 square feet including all three levels) is part of a previously announced $850 million investment by the Auburn Hills-based automaker.

John Powell, Chrysler senior manager of paint facilities, planning and launch, said the new facility is about 85 percent complete and is expected to go online early next year.

“There’s a lot of new innovative technology that we have here that we don’t have anywhere else,” he told media Tuesday during a tour of the three-level facility, which can seal, coat, powder and paint an entire vehicle using advanced robotic systems in about eight hours. “This is definitely going to be our future standard.”

The new paint shop replaces a current shop connected to Chrysler’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, which produces the Chrysler 200 and 200 convertible and Dodge Avenger. When the paint facility goes online next year, it will be capable of accepting all of Fiat and Chrysler’s current lineup except the Ram Truck brand’s pickups and ProMaster. The first vehicle expected to go through the new paint shop is the next-generation 200, which could be called a different name.

Chrysler, which idled the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant as of July 1 for normal retooling and to connect the new paint shop with the assembly plant, did not have an exact amount the new facility is expected to save the company annually in recycling, energy and other costs. The assembly facility is expected to be back online in about two weeks.

According to Jim Hanley, conveyor project manager, a new friction drive system conveyor, which is one of the final steps in the paint shop for a vehicle, is expected to save Chrysler $63,583 annually in energy costs. The new paint shop, which started being constructed in May 2011, also features special chambers, or windows, that allow workers to perform maintenance on one part of the line without stopping the entire line.

“They share responsibilities,” said Heather Montgomery, program management and paint facilities manager. “The minute you send that robot to the maintenance window, the other robots know that they need to pick up … and they basically play a continuous program that covers that robot’s tasks.”

In October 2010, the original $850 million investment was for the new paint shop and retooling at two area stamping plants in Sterling Heights and Warren. The $850 million was part of a $1 billion announced investment that also included a $150 million investment at its facility in Dundee.

Chrysler is not breaking out the amount of investment at each facility for the $850 million.

The Sterling Heights Assembly Plant complex employs about 2,450 hourly and 127 salaried workers on two shifts.

In October 2011, Chrysler also announced that it would invest $165 million to add a one million square-foot body shop, which vehicles will go to after the paint shop.