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JNAP 2010: Launching the Jeep Grand Cherokee at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant
Feb 4, 2025
J.P. Joans’ original videos from the tour of that time, now with Dave’s audio commentary! Went back to the original footage for higher resolution.
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0:01
this footage was taken in
0:05
2010 and that explains why it's not in
0:09
4k and why the video is a little shaky
0:12
and such because it was done on an
0:14
ordinary camera or a cell phone 13 years
0:18
ago now by JP Jones at a press tour of
0:22
the Jefferson North assembly plant or
0:24
jnap or Jefferson North which was then
0:28
just starting to make the 2011 Jeep
0:30
Grand Cherokee which was a big deal at
0:32
the time now what you're seeing is a
0:34
very small amount of this huge plant and
0:36
here's an outside shot from Jefferson
0:39
Avenue to show what it looked like and
0:41
this plant is close to the Mac Avenue
0:44
engine plants I really can't convey the
0:47
scale very easily as for the Grand
0:50
Cherokee itself you could be forgiven if
0:52
you thought that you were looking at a
0:53
Chrysler 300C it is really nice in there
0:57
very elegant design
1:03
so here we are back inside the plant and
1:05
inside it's very very noisy outside it's
1:08
dead silent and you can't hear a thing
1:10
which is really pretty amazing so here
1:12
are the robots and what they appear to
1:14
be doing is either welding without any
1:18
visible Sparks or otherwise sealing
1:21
openings in these bodies and they do
1:23
that automatically this used to be done
1:25
in you know in the' 70s this was largely
1:28
done by human beings and it's become all
1:30
robotized so these plants that used to
1:32
have enormous numbers of workers are now
1:35
enormous numbers of robots and far fewer
1:38
workers obviously there are advantages
1:41
in terms of the robots being far more
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predictable in what they do as long as
1:45
you program them properly they can
1:47
actually do a better job of assembly a
1:50
more consistent job of assembly up there
1:52
you can see the flashes as they're
1:54
welding so it's a pretty impressive
1:56
operation just a quick little Arc weld
1:58
from the robots as they go through spot
2:01
by spot making sure everything is put
2:03
together properly so every weld is a
2:05
perfect weld so that that's you know
2:08
keep in mind that this is 13 years ago
2:10
and even by then Chrysler had been
2:13
designing their plants entirely on
2:16
computer using 3D programs so that they
2:19
could test all the robot movements to
2:22
the extent of their ability they could
2:24
make sure that the robots didn't hit
2:26
people or other robots that there was no
2:28
interference between robots and posts or
2:32
other equipment they could test
2:34
everything and make sure it all worked
2:36
while still in the computer program
2:39
before they actually put anything
2:41
together and the other thing to consider
2:43
is that even back then Chrysler had Flex
2:47
manufacturing they were beginning that
2:50
before daimer took over and the idea
2:54
there is that you have the same robot
2:56
and it can change the tools on the tips
2:59
of its hand hands so to speak and have
3:01
different programming for various
3:03
motions so that it can make more than
3:06
one thing more than one vehicle and they
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actually had it so that they could make
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two related vehicles and one completely
3:12
unrelated vehicle on the same assembly
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line without dropping a stitch so to
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speak without having any gaps and this
3:20
was really pretty amazing so in this
3:22
plant they would be able to make Grand
3:23
Cherokees and Durango and here you see
3:26
the vehicles as they go on the overhead
3:29
conveyors
3:30
now they use a skillet system don't ask
3:33
me what the difference is because I
3:35
don't know but having the vehicles go
3:38
overhead is a great help ergonomically
3:41
things have really Advanced since the
3:43
60s and70s not to mention incredibly
3:46
Advanced obviously since the original
3:49
assembly lines and then the rolling
3:51
assembly lines Ransom olds being the
3:54
first to do a uh assembly line with his
3:57
curv Dash olds mobile and then Henry for
4:00
famously doing the first one with
4:02
conveyors and Ford probably wouldn't
4:04
have been able to do that except that uh
4:07
employee of Thomas Edison's when he was
4:10
doing his mining operations that never
4:12
netted him a single penny but actually
4:14
cost him pretty much his whole Fortune
4:16
from the Electric Light Industry one of
4:19
his employees developed the rubberized
4:21
conveyor belts to replace the old canvas
4:24
ones and so Ford was able to make use of
4:27
those which made it practical to do
4:30
automobile assembly on a conveyor belt
4:33
assembly line so this is the body drop
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and this is one of the cooler things my
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guess is that they're just slowly
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ramping up and that eventually these
4:44
body drops would be much much faster
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than what you're seeing they had really
4:48
just started production when this tour
4:50
began so everything's moving a bit
4:53
slower than it normally
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would and of course there is Media here
4:58
and you don't want to have things going
5:00
at full speed while the media are around
5:02
because there is a chance of
5:04
injury really I find it pretty amazing
5:07
that they still do body drops with
5:09
unibody cars you know the uh
5:11
transmission and engine are mounted
5:14
together on one assembly and then the
5:16
body drops onto it merges with it to
5:19
make one vehicle still requires a bunch
5:23
of manual intervention right now but
5:25
that's probably going to get worked out
5:27
as production continues
5:36
way up above in a lot of places there
5:38
are these plant status
5:40
indicators it's a pretty good way of
5:43
knowing exactly what parts of the plant
5:45
are doing well and which parts are doing
5:48
poorly as you can see carts move
5:51
automatically on their own uh holding
5:54
engine and transmission assemblies and
5:57
such this is actually the entire lower
5:59
part of the vehicle before it gets
6:01
joined in the body
6:03
drop so here JP is in a little cart with
6:07
other journalists and uh he's just going
6:10
alongside the assembly line you can see
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all the racks of Parts waiting to be
6:14
installed there's an interesting
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Japanese system called pokeo where you
6:19
give the workers exactly the right
6:21
number of parts for each vehicle and if
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you have any parts left over or if you
6:24
run out of Parts you know that you've
6:26
done something wrong that's a very
6:28
Demming way of thinking
6:30
very clever so if somebody's supposed to
6:32
put on five bolts they get a baggie of
6:34
five volts for each car or a little box
6:36
of five
6:37
volts lot of the workers um you know you
6:40
look at this and it looks like nobody's
6:42
doing anything and you get that you know
6:44
Union Factory workers are lazy thing if
6:47
you're minded that way and of course
6:50
that's because the plant hasn't really
6:51
started full production so up above
6:54
there in the ceiling that you saw a
6:56
moment ago is the Executive offices
6:59
and now we have the the media
7:01
presentation from that day so you've got
7:04
people from the union and you've got
7:05
people from the company and then you've
7:08
got the presentation of the car so one
7:11
of the ones that they just finished
7:12
comes down through the line or possibly
7:14
a prototype that was made months ago
7:17
it's impossible to tell and there's your
7:19
new grand
7:21
therapy now that's Governor gretan
7:23
Whitmer and she actually did a lot to
7:26
make sure this plant got upgraded as it
7:28
was and was just hugging the head of the
7:31
company Sergio
7:33
Marion and she's going to give a little
7:35
speech but we're not going to listen to
7:37
it because the video is just about over
7:41
thanks for listening
#Automotive Industry
#Factory Automation
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