Page 25 - Case Study Annual 2015
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Significantly, it also meant the plant had to produce Solution
vehicles at an output rate of a unit every 2,3 minutes
– double the best rate the plant had achieved in the Volkswagen AG in Germany supported VWSA to
past. The high production rate would clearly result implement a new faster and more ergonomically
in many challenges within operations and within the friendly vehicle assembly line. In this revised layout
supply chain. Significant changes were required from and processes, the parts needed to be presented to the
the assembly operations and from the supply chain that operator in a way that reduced his cycle time through
supports it. minimising of waste. Drastically improved assembly
operator efficiency resulted from a carefully designed
The technology and know-how for changes required integrated workstation.
in the assembly processes were supplied by Volkswagen
AG in Germany while InSync Solutions supplied the Strict rules were implemented on how many steps
technology and know-how for changes required in the each operator could take and how far he/she needed to
supply chain. reach for any part. This had a significant impact on the
logistics processes required to convert material from the
Business challenges and objectives received status/format into the final status/format that
was required on the assembly line.
VWSA competes with other Volkswagen plants
around the globe to secure production volume for its The number of smaller bins that needed to be
plant. Competitive costs, 100% on-time delivery and supplied to the line per day increased by 900%. This
guaranteed quality are some of the most important sharp increase could not be processed through the
factors when competing to supply the various markets automated bin storage and retrieval system in place at
around the world. the time and had to be replaced by a new flow rack
system and associated systems and processes that could
Most of the vehicles manufactured by VWSA Africa cope with the increased demand.
are exported. Country-specific requirements increase the
options and configurations that need to be produced at “It is amazing to me that we could develop a
the manufacturing plant. The higher output volumes and
higher levels of model complexity demanded significant logistics process in South Africa that can be
changes to all aspects of VWSA manufacturing and
logistics processes to cope with the demands of the considered a global benchmark in customer
new business requirements of higher volumes into more
markets. orientated automotive logistics. The essence of
VWSA had to make significant changes to all aspects it is now being included in VW Group material
of its manufacturing and logistics processes to cope
with the demands of the new business requirements of flow systems.” Clyde Swartz, divisional head of
higher volumes into more markets.
Logistics, VWSA.
The most severe demands on the project were
timing and a no-business-interruption requirement. This made the project more complex as the existing
The logistics project was started in January 2009 and racking system needed to be replaced with an alternative
the first prototype solution had to be tested on the then solution in the same floor space. This necessitated a very
current Polo line (which later became the Polo Vivo carefully planned migration plan that was done in seven
assembly line) by April 2009 and had to be ready for phases. In each phase a section of the new racking
the introduction of the new Polo line by July 2009.
All this had to be done without having an impact on
the operations, that is, no line stoppages were allowed
while introducing the new concepts.
the logistics news case study annual 2015 23
