Suppliers to move near Chrysler plant
New businesses and 300 jobs are likely to follow.




BELVIDERE -- Two auto parts suppliers will open operations across the road from DaimlerChrysler's Belvidere assembly plant, employing up to 300 people and ushering in what is expected to be a wave of new businesses and job opportunities associated with the Neon factory.


The news comes just days after members of United Auto Workers Local 1268 ratified a new contract that could lead to more jobs inside the plant.


The two businesses have signed long-term leases for $5 million buildings in Townhall Industrial Park, according to Bob Sanches, a partner at Landmark Development Inc., which owns and operates the 90-acre park.


The buildings are 111,000 square feet and 105,000 square feet, and one company has already moved into its building. The other is moving in next month.


Sanches declined to name the companies. He said each would employ up to 150 people.

-Matt-

 

More to come

Sanches said the companies will supply "all kinds of different parts" to the DaimlerChrysler plant, which makes Dodge Neons for now and is expected to begin making a small sport utility vehicle and a car to replace the Neon sometime in the future, maybe as soon as next year.


There could be other businesses coming to Townhall, Sanches said.


"We have several other Chrysler-related things we're talking to, and a good handful of companies in the process of moving out to Belvidere," he said, declining to elaborate.


Mark Williams, executive director of the Belvidere economic development agency Growth Dimensions, declined to speak specifically about the new companies.


He said, "Over the past couple years we've been working very hard with all types of companies looking to relocate here for growth and expansion."


Other leaders close to the situation were also reluctant to discuss details of the new companies until final arrangements have been made.


But those contacted Monday hinted strongly that production announcements were expected soon.


The good news for Belvidere follows last week's overwhelming ratification of a new labor agreement between DaimlerChrysler and UAW Local 1268.


C.D. Graham, president of the 2,200-member local, said the five-year work force and safety deal would pave the way for three new production lines inside the plant.


"We employ 1,750 with the Neon on one shift," Graham said recently. "Put on two or three shifts, and you're going to come up with 3,000 or even more."


The labor agreement was a dramatic turnaround from the stunning defeat of DaimlerChrysler's first contract offer on Dec. 10.


A revote on the same proposal Dec. 16 gained landslide approval -- 1,460 to 144 -- clearing the way for what company officials call Belvidere's "Future Production Strategy."

Last Neons set for Sept.

The Belvidere plant currently operates one shift making Dodge Neons, which is slated for phaseout in September 2005.


As DaimlerChrysler continues to work to improve its efficiency and implement more flexible manufacturing initiatives, it will rely more and more on suppliers and distributors to provide assembled components and provide them just as they are needed on the line. That is believed to be part of the company's production strategy.


This "just-in-time" manufacturing, coupled with what the company calls "sequenced parts delivery," is designed to improve the quality, reliability, speed and flexibility of production, according to an Aug. 17 article in The Scoop, a Chrysler Group publication.


Chrysler officials, contacted late Monday, did not return calls.


Employees at the Belvidere plant said several components that had been made in-house, such as doors and instrument panels, will now come to the plant as assembled "modules" ready for installation.


It is not unusual for businesses tied to automakers to spring up near those factories.


Janesville, Wis., is home to a 4,000-employee General Motors plant that makes several trucks and sport utility vehicles.


It is also home to numerous related businesses that employ at least that many people, said John Beckord, president of Janesville Forward, an economic development group.


Given the pressures placed on automakers to get assembled quickly, he expects similar development to come to Belvidere.


"It's an intensely competitive business, and I know they look under every rock for a way to be more efficient, and it seems that there are those in the industry who are believers in the notion that close proximity can lower lead times and improve efficiency of 'product in, product out,'" he said. "So it would seem that the economies drive this thinking that some close proximity can be helpful."


-Matt-

 

Thats what I like to hear about! More jobs.

Joe