Parts shortage shuts Toledo's Jeep Wrangler factories

10/2/2009

Chrysler Group LLC said Friday that the factories at Toledo Jeep Assembly complex which make the Wrangler, will be shut down next week because of what the automaker described as “a parts shortage from an external supplier.”

It will idle about 500 Chrysler workers on two shifts and 500 to 700 supplier workers in the complex.

Chrysler did not identify the part or the supplier involved in the shutdown, saying only that “the shutdown is due to the continued stress in the automotive supply chain.”

Union officials at the plant said that those factories and the one next door making the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro have had trouble maintaining a steady flow of parts since resuming production this summer.

The plants were idled for about two months in the spring when Chrysler shut down all of its plants nationwide during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.