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Story by Dubspeed Driven Associate Editor, Carl Modesette

Recently we at Dubspeed Media had the opportunity to visit the Chrysler Proving Grounds in Chelsea, Michigan to sample the entire Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep lineup. For your author, this was a special treat as my professional background is in vehicle testing. While it was an incredible opportunity to drive SRT-8 vehicles on CPG’s own test tracks and navigate Trail-Rated Jeeps through the CPG off-road course, what I really wanted to do was learn more about what happens at the CPG when hoards of media aren’t crawling all over it. Thanks to the accommodating staff of Daimler-Chrysler’s Communications Team, we were able to speak to the man in charge of CPG, Jeff Zyburt, Director of the CPG, and Lab Durability Testing. In the interview, we were able to gain a better understanding of what happens behind the scenes at this highly-secretive test facility.

Read the complete interview after the jump!

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DD - Describe the CPG facilities, and/or give us an overview of what happens here.

JZ -

DD - How many staff members belong to CPG? Give an idea of their overall expertise: what’s the average experience level, and/or what levels of education do they possess?

JZ - There are approximately 1,000 employees involved in the testing aspects of the business. We have 23 with Doctorates in various areas of expertise, 146 with various masters and the remaining with Bachelors degrees. The average years of expertise is 17.6 years. We do have people with as high as 40 years of testing experience.

DD - Are CPG staff assigned to platform projects, or to specific types of tests?

JZ - Both, we have some tied to a product or product line and others servicing all of the platforms in their areas of expertise.

DD - 1,000 employees sounds like a huge operation! How does that relate to the number of employees in the Engineering side of the business overall?

JZ - There are approximately 8000 employees under the product development umbrella (this includes quality, design engineering and development, advanced engineering etc).

DD - Do you do any benchmarking of other companies/competitors in terms of testing?

JZ - We are always looking at how other companies design and develop their products and components. We continue to refine our CDS (Chrysler Development System) based off of what is learned and our own best practices that have been developed by both the Mercedes Car Group and Chrysler Group.

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Testing Equipment

DD - Anyone with exposure to the engineering field has seen the proliferation of computer-aided design, and the advances in what can be done virtually versus physically. How does the availability of these virtual environments affect how your products are tested?

JZ - As technology advances both internally and externally in our supply base, all components and systems that lend themselves to the use of modeling will be modeled in the design phase of the programs. However, application of modeling is not used simply because it can be; in some cases a good old hand calculation from the Engineering 101 book will give you the right answer. We don’t apply a sledge hammer when a rubber mallet will get the job done. It is the same in the hardware testing world. We use both the bench component and system level testing when the hand calculations and modeling is done. Once we have gained confidence, we are ready to go to the next step. Ultimately the customer drives the vehicle, not the computer or bench, so final verification is still done on the test track and the roads of America and multiple countries of the world.

DD - Further, we’ve all seen how robotics and technology have changed the manufacturing environment – how much of that automation can be applied to testing?

JZ - It depends on the component or systems that you are testing. Computers are wonderful things - they can monitor multiple inputs in fractions of a second and can shut down systems when the programmed parameters are out of specification. The technician/engineer still needs to do the investigation and make the decision for the next steps in the testing. In the Stress lab, for example, on the off shifts we will have two self directed technicians monitor the entire component test lab.

DD - Is the test equipment you use extremely state-of-the-art, specific to the auto industry, or is it more rudimentary?

JZ - Again I will point to the use of the right tool for the right job. If a simple hydraulic cylinder can be used to test a component or system we will do that. As new technologies are generated and our investigations show that it will yield a better product or reduce test time we will go after it.

DD - Is analysis of the data you collect automated, or does it require the expertise of an experienced staff member?

JZ - Some things are pass/fail, but nearly everything requires human evaluation of the results. That is where the years of experience come in.

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Relationship to the company overall

DD - Describe your relationship with Design Engineers - are projects simply handed off to CPG once the design is finished, or is there a great deal of collaboration?

JZ - A vehicle is made up of thousands of parts that make up systems that make up the vehicle. The interface of all of those components and systems can sometimes be very complex so the test and design engineers must work hand in hand to ensure that the sum of the parts is a vehicle that meets the customers’ requirement for durability, reliability and function.

DD - How are customer complaints and/or field problems fed back into the design/test process? Does CPG have that responsibility, or do other groups interface?

JZ - The Corporate Quality group takes the lead in getting the issues from the field back into the Engineering, Manufacturing and Supplier Groups. Each of the organizations have there own quality groups that further refine the field data down to the issues that can be actioned and corrected. The Proving Grounds is the front end to the customer. We feed back the issue found early in testing so that the customer does not see the issue. We are also involved in determining if an issue got to the field, was it something that could have been caught in the early testing and if so, we modify our test methods to ensure that it is never missed again in the development process.

DD - Describe the standards and criteria you use to evaluate test results - are they mostly industry standards or internal standards? As for internal standards, whose take precedence (Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/Mercedes) - or are the standards more product-specific?

JZ - While all car manufacturers test to the standards mandated by the different government bodies we all have our internal standards that we test and develop to. The differences that I believe that you are pointing to are more in the area of the functional objectives for the vehicles and how the customers use them. There are different tests for our trucks vs. our cars vs. our Jeep vehicles because of how the customers use them.

DD - Was the merger difficult in terms of interfacing with international team members / describe the positives and negatives about the merger in terms of the testing operations and personnel.

JZ - Any time you merge two different cultures with two different histories, backgrounds and customer bases you are not always going to get agreement the first time around the table. We are continuing to work and learn from each other in all phases of component and vehicle development. We have learned a tremendous amount about our European customer base wants, needs and expectations which has helped us expand our market penetration in Europe. Mercedes Car Group has participated in several of our US development road trips and have gained insight into our broad customer based requirements. Do we now do all testing and development the same - NO but as we share more of the base components on our vehicles we have come to agreement on common methods on how we test and develop the components and systems.

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New Product Testing

DD - What is a typical time frame or schedule for testing a new product (how long does it take to validate/prove a new design?)

JZ - The time to market and the test time will vary greatly depending on if it is an all new invention or an adaptation of a current component to a new application. We focus on developing the technologies, putting the part on the shelf and then letting the vehicle teams “shop” and use the components that best fill their customer/vehicles needs. The answer can go from years for invention to months for a component adaptation. The key is that it will not be given to the customer until it is ready.

DD - Explain how the overall reliability of a new product is proven - component level, system level, vehicle level? How long does this process take?

JZ - We start way up front in determining what are the load case inputs required for the design areas to develop the components and system to. In some cases the loads are generic, in others data may be taken from mule properties. These actual loads are then used as the component is developed and tested in the virtual world. The same loads will be used when the components have then been tooled and early parts are produced. Several different “tools” are used by the design engineer to statistically determine the robustness of the design by early specific testing. Many different methods are used to validate the component at the bench level. Once the components pass the multiple bench tests the vehicle will be built and tested to determine any possible interface issues. Any issues found at any step of the process have to have a countermeasure developed and statically validated by testing. The time will vary by component and system and the overall time is a competitive advantage so I can’t give it out.

DD - On a more personal note, please describe your career history and how you came to be the Director of the CPG

JZ - I started at the Proving Grounds 29 years ago this summer as a driver mechanic straight out of school. I had worked on vehicles before and through college and Chrysler had no Engineering openings at the time. Six months later I was given an Engineering position in an Emission build up area and then given the opportunity to rotate through several different areas at the Proving Grounds and the old Highland Park complex over the next several years. I was transferred to Chrysler Technology Center within releasing, did a tour in the Sterling Heights Assembly plant, then our Plymouth Road Office Complex as Quality Manager for Jeep, then Vehicle Development for the Grand Cherokee Program and finally Director of Real Wheel Drive Vehicle Development before making my way back at the Proving Grounds.

DD - What was the most enjoyable/exciting/fun project you’ve done? The worst?

JZ - It is hard to say. I was able to work on the original Mini-van program, Viper program and about everything in between. My favorite program was when I was assigned to build four of the 1985 four cylinder turbo Daytona’s to run 24 hrs max speed to dedicate the then-new Arizona Proving Grounds. I supervised building the vehicles, trained the new driver mechanics at the APG to drive high speed, formed pit crews and everything else associated with the event. We averaged 126.9 mph for the 24 hrs with no breakdowns or vehicle issues.

DD - What element of Testing is most interesting to you / what do you get excited about?

JZ - The high speed driving is the most fun, but all aspects interest me since we are responsible to design the tests to ensure that any issue is caught before the customer sees it. It is really a good feeling when your brother, sister or neighbor tells you how much they like their vehicle and you know you had a big part of that satisfaction.

DD - What changes in Testing (in general) do you foresee in the future?

JZ - As we continue to improve our tools you will see more and more done in the virtual world and the time to market will get shorter and shorter. I believe we will get to the point that we will see less surprises when the components get to the bench and to our test vehicles and that all discovery will occur on the tube. The vehicle level test will continue to be the final validation since people still buy and drive the vehicles.

DD - In your opinion, what (if anything) would make testing easier / more efficient / cheaper / better? What changes do you anticipate in testing equipment?

JZ - Technology. In the 29 years that I have been in the automotive arena, it has been the last 10 years where I have seen the tool set that we have to develop and test our vehicles leapfrog many times over. I don’t see the advance in technology slowing down any time soon.

DD - If you could change one thing about testing - what would it be and why?

JZ - In this job I plan to change a lot more than one thing, we need it all, better, faster and at a lower cost. Why? Because making change is really what makes me want to come to work and is what the company is paying me to do.