Production Restarts at Honda Car Plants In Swindon
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SWINDON, UNITED KINGDOM – June 1, 2009: Thousands of associates returned to work at Honda’s car plant in Swindon this morning, as the factory prepares to restart production of Civic and CR-V models for Europe.
Production at Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM) was suspended for four months following a drop in demand for new cars due to the economic downturn. During that time, Honda took the opportunity to rejuvenate and regenerate the plant, so Associates have returned today to ‘like new’ facilities.
The non-production period also gave Honda the chance to test new tools and prepare equipment for building the Jazz – Honda’s small family car – which starts at the factory this autumn. New, faster and more efficient machinery has also been installed, which will help to secure the long-term future of the plant.
Rejuvenation
Major maintenance of machinery and equipment.
Stripping and rebuilding of Assembly lines. Cleaning and redecorating
throughout all plant buildings. Associates have helped with the
refurbishment, including those with specialist skills being used for
plumbing and to tile restrooms etc. Common and public areas were painted
and decorated by Associates from administrative roles.
Investment
Line 1 Paint: We installed leading edge technology
which will provide greater flexibility, improve quality and overall
efficiency. Specifically, all internal and external spraying will become
automated. The new process results in less paint wastage, so we’re
contributing less paint sludge to landfill.
Paint – Pre-Treatment: The Electro-Coat process has been completely changed to a new ‘Ro-dip’ system, which will rotate the car body rather than dipping. By doing this more dirt is removed from the process, adding to a smoother finished quality. The process is shorter and more compact, with less tank space and therefore uses less energy and is more cost effective.
Press: New B Line Press is being installed into the Press facility, which increases speed and capacity – particularly for larger panels – which gives us increased model type options and gives us the ability to produce more parts in-house, as well as the ability to try new models.
Weld, Line 1: New robot cells have been installed, improving cycle time and reliability.
New tooling, equipment and processes for the production of Jazz later in the year have been introduced in all areas within car plant 2.
Training
The non-production period allowed us to begin a new
Process and Leadership training programme with our team leaders and other
managers, which aims to strengthen the core values of HUM including: