Vauxhall ups its flexibility in Ellesmere Port - Euro Auto - Statistical Data Included

Automotive Design & Production, Sept, 2002 by William Kimberley

For all its long history--it celebrates its centenary next year--it s all too easy to dismiss Vauxhall as a bit player in the General Motors empire. The brand is, after all, only to be found in the UK--even the right-hand cars bound for the Republic of Ireland are Opels--and it seems to be on the fringe when it comes to GM Europe. And with the recent closure of its Luton plant--its principal one in the UK--it looks as if it could be in terminal decline. Such perceptions, though are well out of tune with the reality of the situation. The trouble is that it has been the Luton plant that has always been the center of attention. Understandable, perhaps, since it has been the site of Vauxhall production since 1905 and it is also where the head are located, so when the car plant there was closed down earlier this year, it looked as if it could be the end of the line for Vauxhall.

However, there is more to Vauxhall than just one car plant. For example, it is responsible for the BC plant, also in Luton, that produces the Vauxhall Vivaro and Renault Trafic trucks, it has a small but dedicated engineering center at the Millbrook Proving Ground, and it has a large warehouse and headquarters staff. And it has the Ellesmere Port factory. This plant, which has been an important contributor to Vauxhall's output for 40 years, is now entering the limelight following a recent multi-million dollar boost that now sees it producing the Vectra alongside the Astra. However, there is more to it than just that, for it is blazing a trail by becoming one of the first so-called "flex" plants in which two. platforms arid several model variants can be produced off the same line.

It was in 1997 that this plant received a $470-million investment--its largest ever--when it was uprated to produce the new Astra. An advanced automation body shop, major changes to the general assembly area operations, and an increase in the number of robots from just under 300 to 460 made it one of the, most advanced production facilities in Europe. it also pioneered the Supplied In Line Sequence (SILS) concept that was operated by Delphi. Particular attention was paid to reducing turnaround times, cutting down cost-intensive material banking and lowering storage and transport costs. The radiator module, the fuel and brake systems, the entire front suspension with pre-assembled steering, as well as the door, cockpit and engine modules, were built up at the assembly line installation point, working at the same frequency.

Following the decision in February 2001 to produce the new Vectra at Ellesmere Port, the plant received a further $315-million investment to upgrade its facilities. This included modifications to the paint shop to accept the larger cars, uprating the general assembly area to accept two different platforms and a completely new body shop with 380 employees, 660 new robots installed across 120 sub-assembly stations and 3.5 km of production line.

Taking just 12 months to build from scratch, the new body shop, covering an area of 50,000 [m.sup.2], has been designed to accept any future GM model of similar proportions with minimum additional investment. Once fully ramped up, it will be able to produce around 170,000 units a year. It has seen the introduction of new processes, including the inner and outer body sides being built up separately from the skeleton of the car before all being welded together by eight robots at a framing station. Because "zero error" build quality has long been a goal at Ellesmere Port, there are control procedures at every point on the line. Once the body leaves the framing station, for example, they are measured by Perceptron laser measuring machines.

When introduced in 1997, the Ellesmere Port plant was one of the first GM Europe plants to introduce the Andon system, one that enables an operator to receive expert assistance whenever a build problem is encountered. This has been retained and refined for the new body shop to the extent that when working around it in mid-July, there was the constant chime of chords drawing attention to problems. The body also undergoes an expanded ultrasonic weld quality-testing program that was pioneered in the Astra body unit. Probes send sound signals to the metal to measure the condition, depth and dimensions of 28,800 Vectra weld spots a day, to guarantee absolute accuracy in body construction.

Impressive though the new body shop is with its multi-story activities and miles of conveyors allowing the different sections of the car to snake their way around the building at different levels and at different speeds, it is the general assembly area that is the more revolutionary. It is here that the "flex" process has been introduced. Being fed with models from both the Astra and Vectra body shops, it has the capability of not only receiving different model variations down the line, but also the different platforms. As it so happens, on the day of our visit, there were only Vectras, but it was stressed that even batches of one were possible, meaning that a 4-door Vectra might be followed by a 5-door Astra followed by 5-door Vectra. However, there were a number of challenges in the "flex" process that had to be addressed before production ramp up. This included training the employees, who needed to know how to adapt to so many variants coming down the line, the build process itself, which is unique to each model, and the logistics.