Dundee Engine Plant achieves Silver in World Class Manufacturing

Jun. 9, 2015 – FCA’s (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’) Dundee Engine Plant has been awarded silver status for its results in implementing World Class Manufacturing (WCM), becoming the first U.S. facility and the only North American engine plant to receive this designation, it says. Congratulations!

World Class Manufacturing is a methodology that focuses on reducing waste, increasing productivity and improving quality and safety in a systematic and organized way. WCM engages the workforce to provide and implement suggestions on how to improve their jobs and their plants, described FCA.

The Michigan plant received the silver designation, just over five years after adopting the WCM operating system, following a two-day audit last month. During an audit, zero to five points are awarded for each of the 10 technical pillars, which include safety, workplace organization, logistics and the environment, and for each of the 10 managerial pillars such as management commitment, clarity of objectives, allocation of people, motivation of operators and commitment of the organization. Silver is awarded after earning a minimum of 60 points, while a score of 100 would indicate World Class.

According to the automaker, the award makes Dundee its second-highest ranked North American manufacturing facilities after its Windsor, Ont., Assembly Plant, which received silver in March 2014.

“Dundee Engine Plant employees were early adopters of the WCM methodology and their commitment to furthering its implementation now has resulted in a silver designation,” said Brian Harlow, vice-president manufacturing, FCA North America. “They clearly demonstrated a deeper understanding of the methodology and embraced the opportunity to showcase their significant progress during the audit.”
 
“World Class Manufacturing has been critical to our success over the past six years and we couldn’t have done it without the support and commitment of our UAW partners,” he continued. “It is because of the active involvement and participation of our hourly employees that we are on a path to making our manufacturing facilities among the best in the world.”

The plant currently boasts more than 700 employees.