In late 2006, Daimler-Chrysler awarded Magna Closure’s door console contracts for both the Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans.  The contracts were for the Windsor, Ontario Assembly Plant (WAP) and the St. Louis, MO South Assembly Plant (SLSAP).

The Challenge

Magna determined that, rather than adding a new St. Louis operation, they would provide door consoles for both WAP and SLSAP from their existing Windsor, Ontario manufacturing facility.  That meant the doors bound for SLSAP had to be produced simultaneously on the same lines as the WAP bound doors.  This arrangement posed several logistical and operational challenges for both Magna and their sequenced manufacturing solution provider, Insequence Corporation.

Logistically, this single manufacturing site arrangement meant that door consoles bound for St. Louis, MO had to be manufactured in Windsor, Ontario and then sequentially delivered to SLSAP in a matter of hours.  Magna also had to provide as-build serial genealogy data for the St. Louis doors manufactured in Windsor to meet Chrysler’s requirements.

The Solution

The Insequence solution for the WAP bound doors was to receive the broadcast from the WAP plant and direct the manufacturing, sequencing, and shipping processes while error-proofing and collecting as-built traceability information against the vehicle VIN number.

To address the logistical requirement of the St. Louis doors, Magna decided to manufacture and ship the door consoles in batch from the Windsor facility to a sister facility in the St. Louis area, Dakkota Integrated Systems, LLC (Dakkota) where they were subsequently sequenced and delivered to SLSAP against the broadcast.  Insequence added functionality to accommodate the mixed-mode batch building of Chrysler St. Louis bound doors with the broadcast driven sequential production of doors bound for Chrysler Windsor.

To accommodate the as-built genealogy requirement, the Insequence Manufacturing Execution System (MES) collected component product linkages, torque data, as well as vision and electrical test results and linked them to a unique door serial number created by Insequence.   This door as-built data is transferred via ftp to the Insequence server in Dakkota on a daily basis.  It is subsequently married to the vehicle VIN number at the time Insequence directs the sequential racking and truck loading of doors against the delivery broadcast.

The Results

The Insequence manufacturing and sequential delivery solution has allowed Magna Closures to meet the daily broadcast requirements of two Chrysler assembly plants, located in two different countries, from a single manufacturing plant.