Efficiency Jumps

After trailing its crosstown rivals in productivity for years, Chrysler Group was the most improved manufacturer for the second year in a row in the closely watched Harbour Report study of automotive manufacturing efficiency.

Chrysler's 7.8% productivity surge allowed it to pass Ford Motor Co. for the first time in the report's 15-year history, although it still trails General Motors Corp. and the major Japanese players.

The Harbour Report North America, first published in 1989, measures the labor efficiency of assembly, stamping and powertrain operations on a plant-by-plant and company-by-company basis.

Conducted annually by Harbour Consulting, (formerly known as Harbour & Associates), the report used to bear stark testimony to how much more efficient Japanese production methods were to Detroit's.

Now that Detroit's Big Three largely have adopted Japanese lean-production methods, the gap between the best and worst in the study has narrowed significantly, as Big Three plants have improved by leaps and bounds even while Japanese transplants have continued with steady improvements.

In this year's study, which measures gains made in 2003, four of the five most labor-efficient plants in North America were GM plants. Ford assembly plants in Chicago and Atlanta made the top 10, along with three Nissan Motor Mfg. Corp. assembly facilities and one Toyota Motor Mfg. USA Inc. plant.

Nissan once again garnered top efficiency accolades for its Smyrna, TN, manufacturing plant, which led the study with a measurement of 17.26 assembly hours per vehicle made.

The Smyrna-built Altima midsize sedan again set the benchmark for labor productivity, establishing a new standard for labor hours per vehicle of 15.33, Ron Harbour, president of Harbour Consulting, says.

The Frontier compact pickup truck and Xterra SUV, also built at Smyrna, were named by Harbour as best in class for manufacturing efficiency in the small truck and compact SUV categories, respectively.

In overall productivity, all six of the companies with assembly, stamping and powertrain operations in North America — Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan and Toyota — showed improvement in 2004, led by Chrysler. Even though it dropped in the rankings, Ford still improved overall productivity by 3.4%.

Honda Mfg. of America Inc., which had a relatively poor showing in last year's study, boosted performance an impressive 7.1%. GM logged a 5.2% gain.