Chrysler's Windsor plan has French roots; Plant for Smart car was first to include vendor investment.(News)

Byline: James R. Crate, Dorothee Ostle

If the Chrysler group's proposed assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario, is built, it will rest on a foundation poured in the hills of eastern France in 1997.

The 6-year-old DaimlerChrysler plant in Hambach, which produces about 130,000 Smart microcars annually, is based on the same principle Chrysler plans to use in Windsor: direct supplier ownership of most of the means of production, including the paint shop.

``At Hambach, we put in only 5 percent of the value added in production,'' MCC Smart CEO Andreas Renschler said in an interview at the Geneva auto show last week. ``Our suppliers are responsible for the …