When Chrysler’s Belvidere Assembly Plant (the home of the new Dodge Dart) opened in the middle of a northern Illinois cornfield in 1965, the automaker was in the midst of a decade of growth.

Several Fiat factories in Europe, including Pomigliano, Italy, and Tychy, Poland, were benchmarked by engineers from Chrysler’s Belvidere Assembly Plant before producing the new Dodge Dart.

Chrysler Group LLC is betting big on its new Dodge Dart compact sedan, which hits dealer showrooms in June.

The Dodge Dart compact sedan differs significantly from the two other vehicles that are built at Chrysler’s Belvidere, IL, assembly plant—the Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot sport utility vehicle.

Fiat design and lean thinking transform an old factory.

Many people associate lean manufacturing with U-shaped workcells.

Traditionally, plant layout has focused on linear lines and process-based departments.

Kaizen is a basic lean tool that can be applied to many things, including plant layout.

A wide variety of digital tools and computer simulation software is available for creating plant layouts.