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Factory Visit - mark_n - 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.
RE: Factory Visit - Acwats - 20-09-2011 10:28pm
Great post mark. I had a similar visit to Solihul 3 years ago.
It's highly complex and therefore bound to come across problems, if they could only communicate with customers when there are significant delays/reschedules I think people would be more tolerant.
RE: Factory Visit - ytshome - 20-09-2011 10:43pm
Great post Mark. I live near and will defo go now. Looking forward to your the sequel and after a nicely deserved glass or three...YT
RE: Factory Visit - VJD - 20-09-2011 11:02pm
Very interesting, thanks. Let's hope they can manage to keep up quality control while accelerating output...
Shame about the lack of Kermits though, I hope they get some of that lovely Colima Lime paint and start making them (or at least mine!) soon!
RE: Factory Visit - Spiderman - 21-09-2011 01:27am
Great post Mark, pics please, pics!
Last year I visited Ferrari in Maranello, Italy twice to see their Ferrari 458 & California being made, I also had the opportunity of racing a Ferrari round Fiorano where every Ferrari, whether F1 or Road based has been developed and raced by all the F1 drivers, Enzo and a host of important worldwide players and like you it never ceases to amaze me that I always come away from these factory visits absolutely blown away by the whole process & scale of operation; albeit Ferrari take a wee while longer to manufacture their cars. I also visited the Maserati factory in Modena last year and discovered that their cars take at least 22 days to be built which given the speed that everyday road cars are built makes the Supercar build times absolutely staggering & goes some way to explaining & justifying their prices.
To return to topic, I am glad you enjoyed your day too and I for one look forward to your next instalment of your factory visit and also to seeing pics of your Evoque experience.
I'd really like to see pics showing a selection of cars, colours, specs etc and if you have some of the cars grouped together, so we can see how various colours sit side by side with each other, that would be great.
All the best
RE: Factory Visit - Evoqess - 21-09-2011 01:50am
Brilliant Mark - just thrilled to read your report!
You Brits must be very proud indeed - full steam ahead, the world is waiting.
PS - That seems like a very fast turnaround. Would anyone know if it's industry standard for competitive vehicles of equivalent value. I mean, I don't mind them taking their time for good things do take time!
Cheers Diana
RE: Factory Visit - mark_n - 21-09-2011 06:05am
Spiderman - sadly no pictures as cameras and mobile phones are banned from the factory, even outside the buildings where we were able to get up close to groups of cars. As for the areas outside the plant, the weather was wet and rainy for much of the time so I didn't feel it worth taking pictures of lines of Evoques from a distance. There have pictures of these off-site storage areas from others here but inside the site, there are more Evoques tucked away in every space.
Like you, I've been to small volume manufacturers but what singles out the mass producers is the relentless pressure, the tidal wave of metal coming down the line. I've seen it in Bremen where Mercedes produce a C-Class every 48 seconds and in BMW where there's a 1000 3-series a day. The challenge compared to the high volume Japanese and Korean manufacturers is to do it while incorporating the degree of customisation which buyers at this level require.
RE: Factory Visit - GinaS - 21-09-2011 06:33am
Hi Mark_n,
Great post. I met Jim in August at the Experience Centre in Halewood. I turned up with less than a day's notice. Jim let me have a good look around the White 3rd prestige there. We spent ages talking and Jim took us over to the factory and drove us around the compound. Great to see all the cars in the various colours and models. I left completely buzzing and couldn't believe how great Jim had been.....
RE: Factory Visit - mark_n - 21-09-2011 07:08am
Yes, he's a great guy to show you around and in marked contrast to the equivalents at Porsche who are often interns who know less about what they are describing than I do.
RE: Factory Visit - SebM - 21-09-2011 07:50am
Great !!! I hope that I will have the opportunity to visit also Halewood...
In the past I visited Lotus factory in Hethel and Mini factory in Oxford... two very different things, but very interesting in both case...