(June 21, 2018) ABURN HILLS, Mich. — The FCA U.S. Belvidere Assembly Plant welcomed the Jeep Cherokee to its new production home on June 1, 2017. It had been preparing for the Cherokee’s arrival from Toledo, Ohio, since late 2016. The decision to invest $350 million to retool the Illinois facility, located about 60 miles west of Chicago, was made as part of the company’s broader industrialization plan created to respond to the market’s shift away from small cars and to realign its U.S. manufacturing operations to fully utilize available capacity to expand the Jeep and Ram brands.
 
“FCA US was ahead of the competition in recognizing the shift in sales from cars to trucks and SUVs,” said Brian Harlow, head of Manufacturing.

“This led to a plan that discontinued car production in the U.S. and a complete realignment of our U.S. manufacturing operations. In July 2016, we announced the first phase of the plan, which included a total investment of $2.5 billion and commitment to add 1,700 jobs, to focus all of our U.S. production on the vehicles consumers are demanding. Moving the Jeep Cherokee from Toledo to Belvidere was the first step toward accomplishing this plan that will ultimately impact five facilities in three states.”
 
The last Jeep Cherokee rolled off the line at the Toledo North Assembly Plant on April 6, 2017. Since its birth in June 2013, Toledo employees built nearly 950,000 vehicles. Toledo North has now been retooled to build the all-new Jeep Wrangler, which launched in December.
 
For more than four years, the Belvidere Assembly Plant built three distinct vehicles with two different architectures on one assembly line. The transition from building three vehicles to building one not only required a physical makeover of the plant and its processes, but also a culture shift for the employees.
 
That process began in October 2016, long before the plant shut down for 12 weeks of construction. A cross section of 150 employees, representing all areas of the plant, gathered for a week-long offsite workshop. In addition to receiving World Class Manufacturing and leadership training, the employees began addressing non-production issues to improve the plant’s operations, ranging from how to welcome new employees and improving communications to discussing plans for a new cafeteria.
 
Work on those issues continued at the plant in a space designated the “incubator,” a problem-solving hub where employees could meet and find resources needed to continue driving specific initiatives. One of the projects coming out of the incubator involved creating “welcome back” events for the crews as they returned to work after the shutdown. Over a two-week period, employees not only started job-related training, but more importantly, toured the plant to see all of the improvements for themselves, participated in team-building exercises and got an overview of the vehicle they would be building.
 
Belvidere Assembly was the second facility in North America to institute the incubator concept. The Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit was the first.
 
“Preparing and engaging employees in the launch of a vehicle is equally as important as preparing the actual facility,” said Tomasz Gebka, Belvidere Assembly Plant manager. “The employees are the brains, the creativity and the heart of the plant. They truly are the strength behind the continued success of the Jeep Cherokee.”
 
One of the other big changes at Belvidere is the institution of uniforms, part of a plan to align all FCA plants with global standards, to all employees, both hourly and salaried. Branded with Jeep logos, the uniforms are designed to build pride around the iconic nameplate and to help employees feel connected to the global FCA team.
 
Projects to prepare the Belvidere plant for production of the Jeep Cherokee touched all areas of the plant — body shop, paint shop and general assembly — with approximately 75 percent of the facility experiencing significant equipment changes.

The plant runs six days a week on a 3-2-120 operating pattern. Nearly 5,000 employees are assigned to one of three crews that work four 10-hour days on two shifts for a total of 120 production hours per week. From start to finish, it takes about 28 hours for a Jeep Cherokee to roll off the line.