Ten Years of DaimlerChrysler Rastatt Plant

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News of August 07, 2002

Ten Years of DaimlerChrysler Rastatt Plant

Photo: DC

Rastatt is Mercedes-Benz Passenger Car's youngest production plant in Germany
Helmut Petri: "The expansion of the plant underscores our commitment to Rastatt."
Approx. €900 million to be invested in next A-Class generation

Rastatt/Stuttgart - DaimlerChrysler is today celebrating the tenth anniversary of the youngest plant in the Mercedes-Benz Passenger Car production network in Germany. The company invited not only employees, but also politicians and representatives of the supplier industry to the celebration, which was held in the new body-in-white production hall currently being built as part of the Rastatt plant expansion program. "The expansion of the plant underscores our clear commitment to Rastatt," says Helmut Petri, member of the Board of Management at Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars and smart, and head of Mercedes-Benz Passenger Car Production. "Just as the A-Class has its firm place in the model lineup offered by Mercedes-Benz, the Rastatt plant has its place in the worldwide passenger car production network of the Mercedes-Benz brand. From the very start, we consistently and successfully broke new ground in Rastatt. And we'll continue to do so in the future as well, thereby making a lasting contribution to securing jobs in the region."

DaimlerChrysler had already announced in December 2000 that it was planning to expand the plant and produce the successor to the current A-Class there. Among other things, the expansion of the plant, which increases the useful area by around 140,000 sq. meters, will establish the necessary conditions for boosting production capacity. What's more, about 1,000 new jobs will be created as a result of the expansion. DaimlerChrysler is investing some €900 million in Rastatt for the A-Class successor model. The investment includes the expansion of the industrial area at the plant site.

Approximately 4,700 employees are currently involved in manufacturing the Mercedes-Benz A-Class in Rastatt, and production at the plant secures about 600 additional jobs at the adjoining industrial area. The smallest model in the Mercedes-Benz product range, the A-Class was successfully established as a premium-class vehicle in the compact segment by setting new safety, design, reliability and versatility standards far beyond the boundaries of its own market segment. More than 800,000 customers have opted to purchase the compact Mercedes-Benz since its market launch in October 1997, with many drivers taking delivery directly at the Rastatt plant's customer center.

New standards in production, logistics and environmental protection

The production system used in Rastatt was one of the sources of the Mercedes-Benz Production System (MPS), which is employed today at all plants that produce Mercedes-Benz passenger cars worldwide. Thanks to clearly defined standards, MPS ensures that processes are stable and that products meet the most stringent quality gates at every production stage. Employees are therefore extensively involved in production and are continuously provided with additional training. A further characteristic of the production system is the continuous improvement of processes and procedures. "From the very beginning, we consistently implemented our innovative production system in a team composed of highly motivated and dedicated employees," says Dr. Thomas Weber, A-Class Management Spokesman and head of the Rastatt plant. "That's how we created the basis for our high degree of efficiency and flexibility, and it's also the reason why we can guarantee our customers the highest level of product quality imaginable."

A further innovation that was first used at Rastatt was the "pearl necklace" logistics concept, which arranges customer orders and the associated vehicles like pearls on a string. With this concept, the sequence in which the vehicles are to be manufactured is not finally set until a few days before production begins. The information is then forwarded to the suppliers who deliver the necessary components as needed. Ten suppliers have set up shop in the industrial area on the plant grounds, where they use a conveyer bridge to supply around 50 percent of the components needed to assemble the A-Class. When the facility was planned at the end of the 1980s, special care was already taken to ensure that its construction and operation would have as little impact on the environment as possible. As a consequence, the Rastatt plant achieves excellent results in many areas, such as energy recovery, water consumption and emissions. In addition, the production process at the Rastatt plant is setting new standards with regard to environmental compatibility, thanks to a unique water-based paint concept developed by DaimlerChrysler and external partners.

Rastatt has been producing Mercedes-Benz passenger cars since 1992

Following the Rastatt plant's official start-up in 1992, its 1,700 employees initially assembled Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedans. The decision to produce the A-Class in Rastatt was then made in December 1993, and the plant's last E-Class rolled off the assembly line in 1996. Following the refurbishing of the assembly line and the preparation and start-up of the new body-in-white and surface production areas, everything was ready for A-Class production to begin on October 15, 1997. The transition from E-Class to A-Class production also brought about a transformation of the Rastatt plant from a facility exclusively engaged in final assembly to a fully-fledged production plant comprising areas for body-in-white production, painting and vehicle assembly. At the same time, the plant's annual production capacity increased from 40,000 to 200,000 units, while the number of employees nearly tripled.

(July 26, 2002)

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