Abstract: A modular chassis for use in a manufacturing process line wherein manufacturing process steps are performed by manufacturing devices on workpieces carried by pallets. The chassis top plate is machined attaching one or more different types of manufacturing devices to the chassis, such as a robot or automatic parts feeder. A non-synchronous incoming pallet conveyor is aligned horizontally to receive a set of incoming pallets. A pallet transfer and index module is attached and aligned to accept the set of incoming pallets from the incoming pallet conveyor. The transfer and index module includes an indexing mechanism to accurately position each of the retrieved incoming pallets in one of a plurality of workstations so that at the end of the transfer cycle the process steps can be performed on each of the workpieces.