Factory Visit

Fantastic post! Based in the industry I work in I can relate to the issues regarding management in a large manufacturing process. So in some ways when I heard the delay to my order I wasnt that surprised.

But your post really adds a positive feel/improving confidence to what has appeared to be a gloomy outlook on production/orders.

I guess as you would have seen a large operation such as this requires the complete flow of materials from raw materials to what LR are buying, and understand the risk and uncertainty at each stage of the supply chain, disruptions in the supply chain as you have said can bring disaster to the bottom line. Any large manufacturing process would require good risk mitigation strategies, and perhaps LR have not looked at the full life cycle of every product, or maybe poor procurement comunications hence some of the issues at present.

Curious to know if LR are employing the 'LEAN' methodology to the production line as devised by Toyota.

Great post Mark.
Did your guide give any feedback on the complexities and challenges they face. eg zenons, roof etc?

how do u get a visit and what did it cost you?

(21-09-2011 08:41am)defender_uk Wrote:  how do u get a visit and what did it cost you?

x2

cannot remember the prices, but I think between £45 and £120, depends on the type of tour you take

http://www.landrover.com/gl/en/lr/experi.../halewood/

cheers

Mart

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ahh just found this ..... £45 to £100
http://shop.landroverexperience.com/prod...sp?cid=413

Yes, the basic visit is £45. I added a £55 RR Experience which really showed what a fantasitc car the new Disco 4 is.

The complexities appear to be all to do with logistics and parts. For example, the bumper manufacturer paints them and fits them out ready to be slotted on to the front of the car and has to supply them on time in the right order for the cars being built. With a new car every less than 2 minutes, the time to be able to recover from a problem is very small.

To help this, the major sub-contracts for trim, bumpers, seats, plastic parts have factories right next to the LR factory. If you look on Google Maps, you can see them on the left. Just search on Land Rover, Halewood, Liverpool.

This will all get better as everything beds in.

I'm at Halewood next month with a trip organised on Freel2

Sounds a really good day out and after reading this looking forward even more, even if we FL2 owners have a frumpy car

Hi all, so excited to find this post.

My wife and I have travelled from Aussie and have booked in a factory tour of halewood on 28/9, we have not seen an Evoque but have ordered one due to the info on this forum site. We are well excited to be going and am hoping to actually sit inside. I have also booked in to the driving experience and fingers crossed it may be an Evoque.

Is there anything I need to know before I go? Is there any questions you would like me to ask?

All UK Land Rover 4x4 Experience Centres now have the Evoque, so you may want to find out if you can do as you intimate above whilst you are at the factory and if not you can book an off road experience at one of the 4x4 centres.

I doubt you'll be disappointed with your purchase, I've ordered 3 of them, 2 for me and 1 for my wife...they are Good with a capital G

Hope you have a great trip in the UK!

Well just returned from the factory in Halewood, wow what a day. It all started with being picked up in Prestige Evoque from our hotel. The drive out to the factory was fantastic, saw where all the world media got to drive the Evoque down on the docks.

As we arrived at Halewood no less then 4 transporting trucks were leaving the plant and the holding yards were full of cars. We started the factory tour seeing the rolls of aluminum being put through the press machines and come out the other end as side panels. The production is amazing, from welding the side panels to the floor, watching interiors being installed and the cars rolling off the line. We were lucky enough to see all facets of production except for the paint being applied, being our first factory tour it blew us away. We saw the exact car we had ordered, a Fuji white 5 door with spirit interior several times and are now certain that this is the combo we must get.

Unfortunately we were unable to drive an Evoque on the 4x4 experience but I drove the land rover discovery 4 and loved it. I did get opportunity to drive a SD4 Evoque on the way home and it was a fantastic car to drive. As we left Halewood the holding yards were looking very empty, transporter after transporter were loading up and train carriages were full so there will become lucky people through out the world receiving their Evoques very soon.

Would like to thank James, Jim, John and Terry for your hospitallity and showing us a great day. We are well excited to be recieving our Evoque in the new year.

I would highly recommend everyone, if you haven't already, to visit the factory and see how our cars are made.