Postcards from Portugal - Produce - automotive parts suppliers

Automotive Design & Production,  Nov, 2002  by Kermit Whitfield

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The Azambuja plant is the sole production facility for the Combo, the kind of small two-box van that is ubiquitous in most of the world, but practically non-existent in North America. The "Cargo" version makes up 65% of production and is targeted at the business market, while the "Tour," which is fitted with seats in the rear and intended for families, accounts for the remainder. The Combo is built off of Opel's Corsa platform, but also shares many components with the Astra. Though Azambuja currently builds only the Combo, it has the flexibility to build the Corsa and the Corsa Van if needed.

In 2001, Opel invested 130 million euros to modernize the plant. It tripled the number of welding robots, installed a new conveyor system in assembly and built a waterborne paint shop. The latter made it the first Opel plant in Europe to utilize new application technology for metallic paint and underbody PVC insulation. This update increased the automation rate at Azambuja, but did not change the plant's overall goal, which is to stay agile by balancing human labor and robotics. Apfel says, "Line speed changes are the order of the day."

As a full-fledged member of GM's production network, Azambuja has instituted the Global Manufacturing System (GMs) and works with other production facilities in Europe to standardize best practices and solve individual problems. Apfel says this community atmosphere is a big change from the fiefdoms of the past and gives GM a competitive advantage. "All you hand and say you need help, and you're going to get it." He goes on to say, "I also know of all of GM's plants in Europe because there is absolute transparency. There is no sense in playing games (between plants) because we don't have time."

Silicon Chips to Cast-Iron Chips:

Visteon Palmela. Visteon's Palmela plant houses what has got to be one of the most unusual operational mixes in the automotive industry. The 500,000-[ft.sup.2] plant started out assembling electronic components in 1991, but in 1998 it added iron and aluminum machining capabilities and began turning out scroll compressors. Plant manager Sunil Bilolikar says that the ultra-clean mindset necessary for electronics work translated directly to the machining operations helping to make them among the cleanest in the world.

Palmela deals with a lot of complexity, churning out about 300 different products including radios, front and side crash sensors, voice control modules, instrument clusters and air handling assemblies. (These large assemblies are injection molded and assembled on site and shipped just-in-time to AutoEuropa a few kilometers away.) It uses lean manufacturing cells that range from five to 12 people. Each person is trained to do every job in the cell, which gives the plant the flexibility to adjust production based on the number of workers and vice versa.

(This capability was effectively illustrated on the day I visited. There was a pan-European protest strike, so some of Palmela's workers stayed home, but production continued to run at a healthy clip.) Flexibility is further enhanced by simple, effective ideas like lightweight workstations that can be switched out in a few seconds to accommodate product changes.