Chrysler Viper
The Chrysler Viper is a throwback to the muscle cars of the sixties. Chrysler itself describes its new sports car as a "no frills example of brutish power."
However, Chrysler's first $50K car represents more than a sentimental journey for the company. It is a leap into the future. An experiment in how to build cars faster than anybody else. Indeed, the Chrysler Viper went from concept to production in 36 months. The automakers usually can't even change a tire that fast.
Chrysler didn't accomplish this feat alone. It got plenty of help from its suppliers. They were as much a part of the Chrysler Viper team as anyone. This is the big lesson that the automaker will carry over to its other car programs.
"Suppliers are an integral part of the team," says Dave Swietlik, the man in charge of procurement for the Chrysler Viper program. "Their processes drive design."
It was the other way around in the past. Suppliers were brought on board after the cement had already dried, so to speak. But in the case of the Chrysler Viper, key suppliers were signed up even before Chrysler was fully committed to building the car.
It might also be noted that, besides time, the Chrysler Viper team didn't have a lot of money to waste, either. Indeed, the team had to make do with a shoestring budget of $50 million.
"We used to do face-lifts for that amount," says Swietlik.
True believers. Given the go ahead by the top brass to build a high-performance sports car, Chrysler Viper's chief engineer Roy Sjoberg assembled a small team of unabashed car fanatics. They were true believers. The date was March 28, 1989. Swietlik, then assigned to purchasing's strategic planning group, would agree that he is an out-and-out car nut. The first car he owned was a '69 GTO. An old Jag and an Austin-Healy now sit in his garage, undergoing restoration.
"Performance is in my blood," he blithely admits.
Working out of an old building on Plymouth Road in Detroit, the 85 members of the Chrysler Viper team busily prepared to meet its charter of developing a new car in three years flat. One of its first chores was lining up the right suppliers.
"Going in, we knew that the Chrysler Viper program would be a learning process for both Chrysler and our suppliers," says Swietlik.
Swietlik wanted a commitment from the supplier's top management. That was a must. He made it clear that this wasn't going to be any 8-to-5 job. The supplier had to be willing to commit manpower and resources to meeting the Chrysler Viper's compressed time schedule.
Some of Chrysler's regular suppliers balked over the size of the project. Chrysler was planning to build only a couple of hundred Vipers the first year, ultimately ramping up to 5,000 cars a year, which was nowhere near the volumes that most automotive suppliers were accustomed to. Moreover, few had any experience in handling prototype work, which they would be required to do as a member of the Chrysler Viper team.
But Swietlik managed to convince many that the Chrysler Viper was a worthwhile enterprise. The Chrysler Viper was more than just another car, he told them. It was a "new mindset" in the way cars were to be designed and built. A few contracts were awarded through the normal bidding process, but most suppliers were selected based on their skills and capabilities in meeting Chrysler Viper's unique requirements.
"Because the Chrysler Viper was an experiment, we were able to use the size of our organization to our advantage to accelerate new techniques and processes," adds Swietlik. "The Chrysler Viper is a technology development program for Chrysler, as well as a new car; we're learning things that we will be able to pass along to other platform development teams."
The fact that the Chrysler Viper was not going to be mass-produced was a definite plus. "Both sides [i.e., Chrysler and suppliers] recognized the risks involved in bringing new technologies to market in a high volume product, such as a minivan," notes Swietlik. But," he adds, "in the case of the Chrysler Viper, we could implement this new technology and not have to worry as much about interrupting the assembly line and losing a day's production if something wasn't going just right."
All in all, some 75 suppliers volunteered for the Chrysler Viper project (see table). In some cases, a supplier was teamed with another supplier to produce a complete system to accommodate the modular assembly process planned for Chrysler's new Mack Avenue assembly plant in Detroit where the Chrysler Viper was to be built. Koni, for example, the renowned Dutch manufacturer of shock absorbers, was teamed with Rockwell, which supplies coil springs, to produce a complete shock system. Kelsey Hayes teamed three of its divisionsKelsey-Hayes North America (rotors), Brembo Spa of Italy (calipers), and Kelsey-hayes's Western Steel division (wheels) to produce entire wheel/brake systems.
Using such high-performance components as Koni shocks and Brembo calipers was in keeping with Chrysler Viper's procurement mission to acquire what Swietlik characterizes as "the best suspension and driveline components available." Koni supplies such famous European marques as Ferrari and Lamborghini. The Chrysler Viper is the only U.S. car currently equipped with Koni shocks.
Some suppliers saw the Chrysler Viper as a golden opportunity to expand their automotive business. Fabco Industries, for example, saw it as a chance to enter the frame business. Car frames are ordinarily built from stamped steel. However, the Chrysler Viper team chose to go with tubular steel, to reduce development time. Tubular frames have long been used on limited production cars like the Shelby Cobra. Swietlik gave the assignment to Fabco, which heretofore had made roll bars, engine cradles, and other tubular products, but never frames. The Canadian supplier jumped at this chance to get into the frame business, even though it meant investing nearly $5 million in new equipment. A Fabco engineer (Wally Birtch) was made chairman of the Chrysler Viper subcommittee on frames, the first time that a supplier had ever held such a post at Chrysler.
"We put in 20-hour days without a whimper," says Paul Bryant, Fabco's sales VP.
Apparently, all the hard work and dedication is paying off, as Bryant reports that the Canadian tube bender has since notched some "presourced" contracts on future Chrysler products.
Each supplier obviously had its own reason for wanting to participate in the Chrysler Viper program. For Borg-Warner, responsible for design and development of Chrysler Viper's fully-synchronized, six-speed manual transmission, it was a chance to bring its new transmission to market ahead of schedule. BorgWarner originally intended to introduce the transmission in the 93 model year, but advanced the development schedule for this application with a gearbox adapted exclusively for the Chrysler Viper.
Back to the future. For a "no frills, back-to-basics car" the Chrysler Viper is packed with plenty of technological innovations, beginning with an all-aluminum V10 engine-the largest, most powerful engine (400 hp) developed by Chrysler. Because of time constraints, the Chrysler Viper team took a straightforward approach, basing the design of the Chrysler Viper engine on a heavier, iron-block VIO engine that was under development for a Dodge truck. Technical support was provided by Lamborghini, the advanced technology arm of Chrysler's European sports-ear affiliate. The engine has a bottom-fed fuel injection system-a first for Chrysler-that helps to reduce the height of the engine. Indeed, the VIO engine has the lowest height (25.9-in. from the bottom of the oil pan to the uppermost engine bracket) of any 90-degree "Vee" engine Chrysler has ever built. The decision to go with an all-aluminum engine provided a weight savings of almost 100 lb. Fully dressed, the V10 weighs only 716 lb.
The Chrysler Viper is the only domestically produced ear to sport body panels made of a composite material formed by a resin transfer molding (RTM) process. These include the rear quarter panels, rear decklid, roof support, and the massive, single-piece hood and front fender combination. Only the lower front body enclosure is formed by the more familiar sheet molding compound (SMC) process. The RTM panels weigh 40% less than steel panels. In the RTM process, glass fibers are placed inside a mold and, once the mold is closed, resin is injected to mix with the fiber glass and form a finished panel.
According to Swietlik, body panels produced by the RTM process are much stronger than those formed by the SMC process. The finish is also more controllable with the RTM process. Reportedly, only 10-15 minutes of hand finishing was required to achieve a Class A surface, compared to hours for SMC panels. Finally, because the RTM process uses lower pressures, tooling costs are less. Considering the fact that Swietlik was operating on a shoestring budget, it was almost a given that the Chrysler Viper team would choose the RTM process. Asking the resin supplier (ICI Acrylics) for names of RTM molders in the area, Swietlik chose two, Aero Detroit and ETM Enterprises. After the panels are molded, they are sent to Pioneer Engineering for painting before they are shipped to Chrysler. According to Swietlik, receiving prepainted body panels is a first for Chrysler.
The Chrysler Viper's windshield frame-which is sufficiently unique to have been patented-has a foam-wrapped steel center with RTM composite material forming the outer surface. The frame's one piece construction not only provides the complete surrounding for the windshield, but also extends into the passenger compartment to form the top of the instrument panel. The windshield itself will be press-bent in production industry first. Chrysler plans to employ this process for its new LH passenger cars coming out in 1993. Chrysler also scooped the industry by using urethane foam in all of the Chrysler Viper's interior structural trim panels. This saved considerable weight and money (a onestep process replaced several "buildup" steps). The assignment to make the trim panels was given to Chivas Products, a relatively small (sales: $50 million) molding house in Sterling Heights, Mich. To shield the car's passengers from the heat generated by the Chrysler Viper's big V10 engine-exhaust temperatures would reach into the 1,000 degree range-the design team opted for Nomex, an insulating material that in fibrous form has been used to make the firesuits worn by race-car drivers. However, here the Chrysler Viper team chose to use Nomex in pressed spaceboard form, supplied by EHV Weidmann in St. Johnsbury, Vt., which absorbs the brunt of the engine heat expulsed through the dual, exposed exhaust pipes on either side of the Chrysler Viper.
Bringing a car that is going 100 mph to a dead halt in less than five seconds takes darn good brakes; indeed, the Chrysler Viper employs oversized 13-in. vented front discs with four-pot calipers-a combination normally seen only on racing cars-plus ventilated rear, single position slider brakes.
One thing the Chrysler Viper won't have is an airbag.
Platforms. The Chrysler Viper represents concurrent engineering at its best-all members of the team working and pulling together with a common goal. True, because of the nature of the project, and the comparatively small size and enthusiasm of the team-45 members as opposed to the 1,000 or so that make up a typical platform team at Chrysler-the Chrysler Viper project might be more fittingly described as a "skunk works." Indeed, Thomas Stammmp, Chrysler's VP of purchasing and general manager of large cars, calls Chrysler Viper a micro experiment. It provided the first glimpse of how full-scale platform teams will operate in the future.
About three years ago, Chrysler created four platform groups-one for small cars, another for large cars, one for Jeeps and trucks, and a fourth for minivans. The platform teams are self-contained, which is to say, all disciplines are represented, from design engineering and marketing to finance and purchasing. Each team is dedicated to developing specific products, with more or less womb-to-tomb responsibility. In the past, suspension engineers developed suspensions for every product line, buyers bought for everybody, and so forth. Now, each team has its own suspension engineers and buyers. Of course, where similar components are involved, resources are shared across platforms. Why have four buyers buying the same fastener or tire?
"Certain buys will remain commodity oriented, others will be vehicle oriented," explains Steve Zimmer, head of platform purchasing.
The platform concept evolved from an urgent need to reduce product development leadtimes. According to a recent study by Arthur D. Little, reducing product development leadtimes is the single most effective way for automakers to boost profits. Platforms are intended to be fluid organizations contracting and expanding as products are defined and executed. It's Zimmer's job to coordinate the ebb and flow of resources to the right platform, at least as they involve purchasing and the supplier community.
According to Zimmer, platform teams would come together four years prior to Job 1, organizing work teams at the grass-roots level to prove out and validate various design processes and to develop a capable and efficient supplier network. All sourcing decisions are made by the individual platform team. Production suppliers, notes Zimmer, also are required to participate in the prototype build.
"The platform concept provides suppliers with a clearer understanding of the overall design process and their role in it," says Zimmer.
Call it Chrysler's version of the new world order in automaking.
Purchasing
February 20, 1992
Author: Raia, Ernest