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Article: ALPINE HONEYMOON: MAKING IT WORK: D/C GRAZ PLANT GIVES MERGER SKEPTICS PAUSE.
- Article from:
- Automotive News
- Article date:
- February 2, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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GRAZ, Austria - As DaimlerChrysler AG embarks on the momentous task of merging its trans-Atlantic cultures, many skeptics doubt the company can pull it off.
But in an assembly plant here near the foothills of the Alps, Germans and Americans say they are proving the doubters wrong.
Engineers from both sides of the Atlantic were given just seven months to build Jeeps and Mercedes-Benz sport-utilities in the same plant and, wherever possible, on the same conveyor line.
They endured long hours of planning, red-eye plane flights and short tempers. But the two sides have shrugged off differences and, so far at least, are making it work. They are ...