Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is expanding operations in the Kokomo, IN, area that will give them a wider role in the automaker’s global operations.
Since the end of the recession in 2009, FCA’s employment in and around Kokomo, where the company has operated for more than 80 years, has doubled to more than 8,000. FCA has invested more than $2 billion in its five Kokomo-area sites, including a 782,000-sq.-ft. (72,650-sq.-m) plant for building 9-speed transmissions.
Transmissions from the plant in Tipton, IN, just south of Kokomo, which built its first unit in 2014 (below, left), not only are bolted into FCA vehicles built in North America but also are shipped to Italy, Turkey, Brazil, China and India.
The Tipton plant also builds the SiEVT transmission for the Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid-electric minivan built at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada. The gearbox also is shipped to China where it is used in Jeep models, plant manager Mike Carter says.
The line building the hybrid transmission can be expanded. FCA’s global product initiatives call for adding more electrified vehicles to its model mix by 2022.
The assembly line for building the hybrid units can “trace” the origins of every part used in the transmission, when it was attached and when it was finished. If something is wrong, it can be uncovered quickly.
“We’ve used traceability for a long time,” Carter says. “But we’ve gotten better and better at it.”
Each 9-speed transmission includes more than 300 parts. More than 30 of the parts, including the gears and aluminum components, are made by FCA in Kokomo.
FCA says its Kokomo Casting Plant is the world’s largest diecasting operation and produces more than 1 million lbs. (453,600 kg) pounds of aluminum castings per day, which are used for transaxle cases and engine blocks as well as transmissions.
FCA acquired the Tipton site in 2013 from German transmission manufacturer Getrag and began building the 9-speed units in 2014. The plant operates with 946 employees on two shifts.
The plant operates with a commitment to training that “focuses on the elimination of waste, increasing productivity and improving quality and safety in a systematic and organized way.” The system was introduced by FCA’s former CEO, the late Sergio Marchionne.
The Tipton plant houses a training center which is used not only by employees but also by local schoolchildren who learn what goes on in a factory, such as forming melted metal into specific shapes using sand molds. The training center also exposes older students to future manufacturing jobs.
The UAW has played a role in shaping FCA’s extensive operations around Kokomo.
As part of its 2019 contract agreement with the union, FCA agreed to new investments in Kokomo, including $400 million to convert the idled Indiana Transmission Plant II, one of
the automaker’s four transmission plants in the area, into an engine plant.
Mark Stewart, FCA North America’s chief operating officer, says the 2.0L GMET4 engine “will play an important role in our plans to offer electric engine options across 30 nameplates that FCA will bring to markets around the world by 2022.”
Stewart says the investment will retain 1,000 Indiana jobs and add nearly 200 more.
