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Dodge Caliber Robots Finally in Sync


Chrysler says that robots at its Belvidere, Illinois manufacturing facility are no longer crashing into each other. Due to the aggressive schedule for greater automation and manufacturing flexibility while upgrading the plant from its Neon assembly days, the Swedish robots were behaving in a way that one executive described thusly "The end result was some fairly interesting collisions. They (the robots) got to know each other in a way that we didn't want them to know each other, let me put it that way." I guess one can take whatever they want from that statement, but I am intrigued by the phrase “interesting collisions” :-)

All three eight hour shifts are now running at fully capacity which gives the Belvidere the ability to produce 1,500 vehicles per day. Currently the Caliber accounts for 60% of the production with the Compass and Patriot (arriving later this year) accounting for the rest, but Chrysler could make the decision to increase that share even more should demand stay strong.

Source: automotive news, detroit news