Automotive News - June 30, 2008 - (Page 15)

JUNE 30, 2008 • 15 Chrysler abandons Powerway system Ralph Kisiel rkisiel@crain.com Nissan to expand, upgrade training centers Lindsay Chappell lchappell@crain.com More schooling Here is why Nissan wants more training for its dealership technicians. ■ Sales growth: Nissan expects a 39% increase in the number of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles over the next 5 years. ■ More technicians: Over the past 2 years, the number of technicians rose 20%. The number will grow another 20% over the next 4 years. ■ More vehicles: Besides marketing electric vehicles in 2010, Nissan plans to introduce diesel vehicles and enter the lightcommercial-truck business the same year. even larger training center in Somerset, N.J., that could serve retailers as far away as New Chrysler LLC is pulling the plug today, June 30, on the Powerway system, which it had been using with its Tier 1 suppliers since 2000. The automaker used Powerway to communicate with suppliers developing parts for new vehicles. The system is designed to ensure that suppliers meet timing and quality deadlines. This move affects 6,000 Tier 1 supplier manufacturing sites that develop and supply parts for Chrysler. Suppliers use Powerway in factories to report on stages of part development, such as prototype production, and for part changes ordered by the automaker. Chrysler and its suppliers are dissatisfied with the cost and efficiency of the Web-based system, said Douglas Crichton, Chrysler’s senior manager of Advance Quality Planning. So the automaker, with help from its Tier 1 suppliers, will develop its own system, he said. Powerway was charging each supplier manufacturing site an annual subscription fee based on the number of Powerway users and a license fee for each production site. Chrysler says it will not charge its suppliers. Chrysler is ditching the Powerway software despite holding an ownership stake in the company, Powerway Inc., of Indianapolis. Chrysler won’t say whether it will divest its stake, which was 38 percent when Chrysler began using the Powerway system in 2000. Powerway Chairman and CEO Dave Chambliss is disappointed in Chrysler’s decision, which he said was a surprise. Chrysler is Powerway’s largest customer and heavily influenced the shape of the product, Chambliss said. “There was no discussion or warning whatsoever that this was going to happen,” he said. “I was very disappointed.” Chrysler, General Motors and Ford Motor Co. require suppliers to report quality data at specific times during product development. Chrysler, GM and Ford all considered using this common Web-based system from Powerway, but only Chrysler and GM used the software. Ford decided the work could be done cheaper with an inhouse system. GM ditched the software in 2005 for similar reasons. Chrysler will launch its inhouse advanced quality planning data management tool in the fourth quarter of 2009, Crichton says. “It’s more efficient in-house because it links directly with our engineering, cost and procurement systems.” c FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Nissan North America Inc. will upgrade and enlarge its dealership training centers around the United States to make up for more than a decade of little investment. The automaker has created a $1 million prototype training center here, just a few miles from its new North American sales and marketing headquarters. The center can train as many as three dozen technicians at once — more than twice the capacity of its current centers, which are being phased out. Nissan expects to replicate the center this year in other regions, including Dallas, Chicago and New Jersey. The automaker is studying a plan to build an England, says Paul Badger, Nissan’s manager of business administration. “We can’t possibly keep up with the current level of demand,” Badger says. “We’ve got dealers flying their people all over the country trying to find slots for them. We’re running at about 95 percent of our capacity, and it’s about to get busier.” Nissan’s push to have more than 600 dealerships certify a master technician to be eligible to work on Nissan’s new high-end GT-R sports car required a halt to virtually all other training. The introduction of commercial vehicles also will require several hundred Nissan dealers to learn truck-related service procedures and to invest in larger shop technologies. The prototype training centers have been designed to accommodate the larger vehicles. c http://autonews.com/GM100

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Automotive News - June 30, 2008

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