20-09-2011, 10:19pm
Today, I had the best day visiting the LR factory in Halewood, Merseyside where the Evoque is made. More than two hours being shown round by someone - Jim - who really knows and understands the process, time on the Experience test course in a Disco 4 with him and a warm welcome from the charming receptionist, Daniella. I was there with a Porsche friend, just the two of us. I was even able to buy an Evoque cordless mouse...
First, the scale of the operation is boggling. They are now working 3 shifts, 5 days a week making at least 500 cars a day. Most are Evoques with Freelander 2s also. Black and white are by far the most popular colours with grey and silver distant 3rd and 4th and a sprinkling of red (fabulous!), ipanema and what seems to be a new colour, like British Racing Green. Kermit was nowhere to be seen, we saw a single blue car.
Evoques are everywhere. This is the first time they have provided so many build options and the logistics system - supplying the correct parts to the correct station at the correct time to go on the correct car - is still bedding in. Some suppliers are struggling. Today, there was a shortage of the plastic trim at the sides of the bonnet and a number of cars were waiting outside to have this last part fitted in a series of temporary buildings there to do just this. The last thing they want to do is to upset the main production schedule.
They have been bowled over by the popularity of the car and have done well to ramp up production. They've taken on more people - there are now 4500 - and there's severe parking congestion as they come and go at shift change. In addition, there are 1500 DHL employees who are responsible for the logistics and unloading the constant stream of trucks delivering parts 24 hours a day.
Just as difficult as getting the parts in is getting the cars out. There are huge parking areas of completed cars, we must have seen nearly 1000 across the whole site which we toured in the Disco 4 before going inside. Cars are taken away on transporters 9 at a time and they have their own railhead to get the cars to a port for export.
All in all, a deeply impressive place and I come to this as a keen visitor of car factories - I was in Porsche Leipzig and Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen 2 weeks ago and although the Porsche production process runs like a well oiled machine, LR are working hard to get up to speed on the 384000 possible variants of the car. Remember the car has only been in production for 10 weeks. My perception is that the body shell/paint process is working well, some component suppliers are struggling to keep up.
And then there is the car. I was thrilled to see a car close to my spec, very pleased to stand next to it. If I didn't want a "stealth" car, I would definitely go for a red car. Interesting to see Pure/Prestige and Dynamic next to each other and the Freelander looks very frumpy next to any of them.
I need a glass of wine now, so will give more info tomorrow on the actual production process which was fascinating. In the meantime consider this. The steels panels pressed from raw sheet steel this morning were made into a body shell this afternoon and are being painted overnight. Tomorrow, the entire car will be assembled in less than 4 hours and be out the yellow door all completed Evoques pass through by lunchtime. One more. The doors come off the bodyshell at the start of final production for their own fittings to be added - locks, windows, airbag, trim, mirror and are reunited with the bodyshell at the end. Fine until you realise there's one to do every minute, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.
All in all, a great day, and whatever frustrations we may have about delivery, there's no shortage of commitment there to making this work. It's a great car, one of the most innovative for years and I'm more than pleased to be in the queue. You should be too.
First, the scale of the operation is boggling. They are now working 3 shifts, 5 days a week making at least 500 cars a day. Most are Evoques with Freelander 2s also. Black and white are by far the most popular colours with grey and silver distant 3rd and 4th and a sprinkling of red (fabulous!), ipanema and what seems to be a new colour, like British Racing Green. Kermit was nowhere to be seen, we saw a single blue car.
Evoques are everywhere. This is the first time they have provided so many build options and the logistics system - supplying the correct parts to the correct station at the correct time to go on the correct car - is still bedding in. Some suppliers are struggling. Today, there was a shortage of the plastic trim at the sides of the bonnet and a number of cars were waiting outside to have this last part fitted in a series of temporary buildings there to do just this. The last thing they want to do is to upset the main production schedule.
They have been bowled over by the popularity of the car and have done well to ramp up production. They've taken on more people - there are now 4500 - and there's severe parking congestion as they come and go at shift change. In addition, there are 1500 DHL employees who are responsible for the logistics and unloading the constant stream of trucks delivering parts 24 hours a day.
Just as difficult as getting the parts in is getting the cars out. There are huge parking areas of completed cars, we must have seen nearly 1000 across the whole site which we toured in the Disco 4 before going inside. Cars are taken away on transporters 9 at a time and they have their own railhead to get the cars to a port for export.
All in all, a deeply impressive place and I come to this as a keen visitor of car factories - I was in Porsche Leipzig and Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen 2 weeks ago and although the Porsche production process runs like a well oiled machine, LR are working hard to get up to speed on the 384000 possible variants of the car. Remember the car has only been in production for 10 weeks. My perception is that the body shell/paint process is working well, some component suppliers are struggling to keep up.
And then there is the car. I was thrilled to see a car close to my spec, very pleased to stand next to it. If I didn't want a "stealth" car, I would definitely go for a red car. Interesting to see Pure/Prestige and Dynamic next to each other and the Freelander looks very frumpy next to any of them.
I need a glass of wine now, so will give more info tomorrow on the actual production process which was fascinating. In the meantime consider this. The steels panels pressed from raw sheet steel this morning were made into a body shell this afternoon and are being painted overnight. Tomorrow, the entire car will be assembled in less than 4 hours and be out the yellow door all completed Evoques pass through by lunchtime. One more. The doors come off the bodyshell at the start of final production for their own fittings to be added - locks, windows, airbag, trim, mirror and are reunited with the bodyshell at the end. Fine until you realise there's one to do every minute, 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.
All in all, a great day, and whatever frustrations we may have about delivery, there's no shortage of commitment there to making this work. It's a great car, one of the most innovative for years and I'm more than pleased to be in the queue. You should be too.
