| Completed in October 1997, the so-called Smartville
production plant, located near the small town of Hambach on the French
side of the Franco-German border, is one of the most modern car plants
in the world. When under construction, the impact it might have on the
environment featured so high on the list that it was even considered “ungreen”
to install any air conditioning systems on the site despite it being built
on former swampland and, like many modern buildings, having a large number
of windows. Neither do any of the buildings contain formaldehyde or CFCs
while specialist company Trespa Meteon has supplied the high-quality wood-based
façade cladding to tone down the harsh shapes usually associated
with industrial buildings.
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The Smart’s chassis
is painted using an environmentally friendly powder coating
process with no solvent emissions and hazardous waste |
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Heat recovery systems are used throughout the factory. The heat generated
by air leaving the paint department and by the injection moulding section
is taken through a rotating heat recovery system that also has the side
benefit of eliminating the need for cooling towers.
Rain water that runs from the roofs is retained in reservoirs for use
in tempering steel while all the other wastewater that drains off the
roads and car parks is fed into the oil separation plants, treated in
storage basins and used for specific purposes. All the wastewater from
the plant’s sanitary installations and industrial processes is purified
in a centrally located biological clarification plant using biomembranes
that clean waste through a filtration system to strict European drinking
water standards. After purification, the water is used in the gardens
and as a coolant during the production process.
Environmental concern even extends to the production process. Marking
the first time it has been used 100% in the production of a car, the chassis
is painted using a solvent-free powder coating technique that apart from
its ecological soundness produces a higher quality finish than conventional
methods despite the thinner coat.
Supplier integration
For all this environmental awareness, though, even this is not the most
revolutionary aspect of the Smart production system – that falls
to the arrangements with the suppliers. Just about everything in Smartville
is outsourced, from the smallest component on the assembly line to delivering
cars to dealers in Europe and Japan. Of the 2,200 people who work at the
plant, only around 900 are actually employed by DaimlerChrysler –
the rest work for the seven suppliers on site. However, on site does not
mean just the adjacent supplier park, but actually integrated into the
manufacturing infrastructure.
These companies – Magna Systeme Chassis (the spaceframe), Magna
Unipart (doors), Surtema Eisenmann (the paintshop), Dynamit Nobel (plastic
body panels), Siemens VDO (cockpit), Thyssen Krupp Automotive (powertrain
and rear axle), and Cubic Europe (surface decoration) – supply their
modules or products, which are pre-constructed in Hambach, directly to
the production line. By paying for the system or module only when the
completed car comes off the assembly line having passed all the end-of-line
tests, is payment – “paying after consumption” –
authorised to the supplier. This, of course, reduces Smart’s inventory
almost to zero.
“We decided to give some of the work usually done by the OEMs to
our sister partners because of their know-how as well as for cost reasons
with the volume we are producing here,” says Herbert Schnepper,
Smartville’s general manager. “It’s a very successful
philosophy that has been implemented here. At first we had doubts whether
the system could work because we’re operating together with several
partners and that could produce some problems. However, we have monthly
meetings with the heads of all the enterprises where we discuss both the
operational and strategic way of doing things here, and it works very
well.”
One of the conditions of being one of these integrated suppliers is that
they can only supply the Smart plant – they cannot supply anywhere
else. “That was a condition of the French government,” says
Schnepper, “but the big advantage is that if we have a problem on
the production line, we only have to call the chief operating officer
of the supplier concerned to come over here to look at the problem, define
the solution and then go and solve it, leading to a quick resolution.
If it was a normal set up, it could take days rather than the minutes
or hours it now takes.”
Another condition of the suppliers being awarded the model lifetime contract
is that they have to comply with DaimlerChrysler’s employment terms
and conditions.
“There are some differences between the systems partners and Smart
in the conditions,” says Schnepper, “but we have to ensure
that the main conditions are the same.” This came about from lessons
learnt in the early days when production was disrupted by different strikes.
If the employees of a suppler went on strike, it brought the plant to
a complete standstill. “By harmonising the conditions, we avoid
strikes and increase overall satisfaction.”
To ensure that production targets are met, there is a bonus scheme that
ensures that everyone is working for each other in ensuring a right-first-time
modus operandi.
The factory itself is in the shape of the plus sign with delivery gates
aligned along all the walls, meaning that there are no more than 15 metres
between a gate and the assembly line. Since just-in-time is so important,
keeping delivery distances to the minimum is essential for the smooth
flow of supplies, especially as the number of parts numbers has grown
exponentially. Where the Smart used to be a relatively simple product
with around 150-200 parts numbers, it is now up to 2,000. This is due
to the greater range of colours, exterior panels and interiors plus additional
equipment such as heated seats, traction control and power steering that
are now standard in Smarts.
The suppliers are given three days’ warning about the sequence,
but it is the signal from the paint shop that confirms it, leaving Siemens
VDO, for example, 80 minutes to build the cockpit and Magna five hours
to build and deliver the door assembly.
Currently the daily output is around 500 Smart coupes and cabriolets –
which have just been renamed the Smart ForTwo coupe and ForTwo cabrio
in recognition of the recently introduced 4-door Smart ForFour –
on a two-shift system, all being made to customer order. At the end of
the assembly line, they are then passed before being handed to the outsourced
Smartcentre distribution. In effect, the plant could have ownership for
only a matter of seconds, but in reality they take possession of each
vehicle for 24 hours to allow a cushion should any rectification work
need to be undertaken.
Because of its unique way of producing cars, the plant has attracted a
great deal of interest from both inside DaimlerChrysler as well as from
other companies.
“We receive a large number of visitors,” says Schnepper, “including
Chrysler executives and plant managers. “Initially they were looking
to build a greenfield site based on this system, even down to using the
same assembly ‘plus’ concept, but it didn’t work out.
Then they wanted to reduce their workload at an existing Jeep plant so
that they could have the same work share as we have in Hambach. I think
it’s a very good solution for a certain production volume.”
That production volume, says Schnepper, is around 250,000-300,000 cars
a year. “If it’s more, than it’s more practical to produce
cars in the conventional way because it doesn’t make sense to have
only one supplier for a system. At 300,000 units it’s also much
easier to find a systems supplier than it is for just 150,000 units. With
our annual production of around 130,000 to 150,000 cars, our system works
very well and leads to a cost position that is comparable to those with
an annual output of 300,000 units.” Schnepper then adds that should
demand for the Smart increase so that they had to produce 300,000 units
a year that it would be “very difficult” to change to the
conventional way of producing cars.
The Smart plant, like the vehicle it produces, is surprising. It puts
a great deal of onus, both financially and technically, on the suppliers
and against the odds, it seems to be working. The company is now eyeing
up the DaimlerChrysler plant in Brazil to see whether it can introduce
the same system to produce the Formore, the SUV – Smart utility
vehicle – it will be introducing to North America in 2006.
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