In Ellesmere Port
the new Astra is launched as well as in Bochum, Germany. The
investment of $ 489 Mill. is the biggest one ever spent for
this plant. The money was spent mainly for
the flexible body shop (2/3) and to the update of the assembly
area (1/3). Volume will be increased from 145,000 units
to 160,000 p.a.
The most impressive
part of the new plant is the new supplier setting,
which includes
Delphi
Automotive Systems,
Plastic
Omnium Automotive and
Mackie
Automotive Systems.
The suppliers are
based within the plant, delivering their components
SILS, which stands for Supply in Line Sequence.
For the supplier park an investment of $ 35 Mill. was necessary.
About 200 people work here in total.
The
tasks are splitted as following:
Delphi
: Delphi delivers chassis and underbody components
the rear
axle assembly,
the front
cradle and
the front
strut assembly.
in parallel
Delphi collects and delivers different product groups
inline seuence to the assembly, as a kind of a consolidator.
Plastic
Omnium : Plastic Omnium supplies painted bumpers,
fuel tanks and filler systems.
Mackie
: Mackie is sequencing trim compoents, also from other suppliers,
and the cooling module, complete with radiator, fan and
air cooler.
Framing station
from ABB-Preciflex : the station is bringing together
front,
rear,
sides and
base and weld them
together.
Three sets
of tooling are used in the framing station : 2 front half
of the body, rear and base. Each set can be changed individually.
The machine accepts 4 sets for each front and rear tooling and 2
sets for base sets.
