Detroit's Uphill Battle

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welding torches with better-than-human precision. New Chrysler welding machines now carry out 98% of the 3,000 spot welds used for body assembly operations on K-cars. The GM robots that are under development will be capable of selecting parts from a bin, examining them for defects and then using only those that are perfect.

The industry is openly borrowing production ideas from its archrivals, the Japanese. Says Ford President Donald Petersen: "They have a lot of good techniques, and we're starting to feed them all through the system." For example, the Japanese have become skillful at keeping a production line moving without keeping mountains of parts on hand. Ford has now copied some of the Japanese methods to cut its inventory stockpiles. The saving: $90 million a year.

Detroit now readily admits that in comparison to the Japanese, it has been seriously deficient in the area of "fits and finishes," the production imperfections like badly hung doors and poorly fastened trim. At its Fisher Body plant in Fairfield, Ohio, GM put a Toyota Celica on display alongside an Oldsmobile Omega to let workers see the difference.

Innovative approaches to quality control are most apparent at Chrysler, where new models like the Dodge St. Regis and the Chrysler New Yorker in 1979 were often clunkers when they rolled off the assembly line. Says U.A.W. Vice President Marc Stepp: "The Chrysler worker is now very sensitive to the need to build a good piece off the press. He knows that if the company goes down, he'll be out of a job."

Chrysler has also negotiated a unique company-wide product-quality agreement with the autoworkers' union. If an assembly-line worker sees a product flaw, he is instructed to tell his foreman, who is obliged to fix it. If the problem recurs, the worker is urged to report it to the plant's new union-management quality committee.

At Ford's Wayne factory, 250 roving troubleshooters assist 3,750 assembly-line workers. Their duties: to teach new operators, keep track of supplies and help correct tooling or materials problems. They are also expected to give plant management tips on improving production.

Quality does not stop at the factory door, as buyers have found during sometimes rancorous relations with dealers. GM has thus instituted a massive program to teach mechanics how to service the new cars and has also established an arbitration procedure to settle disputes among customers, the dealers and GM. This year Ford is tripling the number of training hours usually available on a new model to dealers and their mechanics.

Despite all the exotic robots and the new productive atmosphere around auto plants, the Big Three carmakers still face an uncertain future. Their reputations for poor quality will be hard to live down, and the Japanese will continue to be fierce and efficient competitors (see box). Perhaps most important, auto sales will be the prisoner of the economy. If U.S. business in general continues to limp along in recession or in sluggish growth, auto sales will probably remain low. Prospects for the Big Three:

CHRYSLER. Its perilous bout with bankruptcy now temporarily alleviated by $1.5 billion in Government-guaranteed loans, Chrysler nevertheless remains in serious trouble. The company's hopes for survival ride with the K-cars. Out front selling the new