Being watchful, being efficient, being green benefits everyone – those within Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and our vehicle owners.
FCA employees have the opportunity to submit projects for an Environment, Health and Safety Leadership Award. And, we’re giving you an exclusive look inside FCA to see the nominees and the impact that these ideas have on vehicle owners and our manufacturing process.
As you’ll see, ideas and solutions can come from anywhere.
In this post, the idea came from a supplier. It’s a new expanding foam used to make your ride quieter. The new foam uses a soy-based plasticizer, replacing a petroleum-based plasticizer. The cost of the foam was a bit more, but when we calculated the vehicle weight savings (about 1 pound per vehicle) and the overall reduction in process cost, it was an easy decision.
The new foam is being used in the Chrysler 200 made in Sterling Heights, Michigan; the Toledo, Ohio-built Jeep® Cherokee; the Jeep Grand Cherokee, made at our Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit; and the Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, built in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In time the cost-saving use of this new foam will be rolled out to our other plants and vehicles as well.
Get the behind-the-scenes details in the video above.
