Plastics & Rubber World - July/August 2019 - 32

automotive

Fresh start for vauxhall Luton
Julian Buckley speaks with
Mike Wright, plant director
at Vauxhall luton, about
production of the Vivaro
LCV, the first all-new model
to be assembled by a
former GM Europe plant

Vivaro pre-production started with Peugeot and Citroen models

rench carmaker PSA Group completed the £1.9bn purchase of GM Europe
in November 2017. The deal included
German brand Opel and the UK's Vauxhall, plus the related financial operations.
Having purchased Vauxhall in 1925 and
Opel in 1929, General Motors had enjoyed
extended success with the two brands. But
faced with competition from premium carmakers and operational drag due to manufacturing over-capacity, the two brands
had been struggling to stay in the black.
Opel and Vauxhall share a series of models, including the Corsa, Astra and Insignia.
With PSA planning to move these and all
other models to group-sourced vehicle platforms, it was suspected that the carmaker
would also look to rationalise production
and close plants to help cut costs.
Vauxhall has two assembly plants in
the UK, Ellesmere Port, near Liverpool,
and the Luton Plant. With the advent of
Brexit, it was widely thought it would only
be a matter of time before the plug was
pulled on both sites, with related assembly operations moving into Europe.
But while the fate of the Ellesmere Port
plant still hangs in the balance, the Luton
plant has recently started pre-production
of the all-new Vivaro light commercial vehicle (LCV).
In this interview, Mike Wright, plant director at Luton, speaks with Julian Buckley,
editor of PRW, about preparations for the
new LCV and how plastics and composites
have been used across the plant to support production.

Urea tank is added to vehicle
underside prior to body marriage

WWW.PRW.COM | July/august 2019

PRW: What assembly processes
feature at the Luton plant?
Mike Wright: We have welding lines, paint
[including corrosion protection and sealant] and general assembly [trim and final].

We have press shop and once we have
completed part production for Renault,
there are plans to produce parts next year
for the K0 [code name for new Vivaro].
We've just completed two new welding
lines for the front and rear underbody
sections. That represents a large portion
of the £100m invested in the plant to support the new model.
There's no plastic division producing
parts here at the plant?
No, we're essentially an assembly plant.
But we have a lot of dealings with suppliers delivering plastic parts. All the vehicles
we're producing at launch have diesel engines and they use a urea fluid to help reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. The tanks
to hold that fluid are delivered by a division
of Takata, based in Romania. In addition to
that there's the fuel tanks, wheel arch liners, there are a lot of plastic components.
How has working with PSA changed
sourcing and inventory?
We've switched to a two-hour system,
meaning we only hold sufficient parts to
support production for two hours. It's
the standard across PSA plants. That has
meant instead of getting bulk part deliveries of one type, the trucks arrive with a lot
of smaller boxes, with parts already separated. That has also required more milk
runs to get parts into the plant.
Does the central location of the plant,
close to Luton, have an impact on
logistics?
Not really. There are some issues related
to traffic, the M1 and M25 can get backed
up. But if we were out in the countryside
there'd be problems with getting parts to
a remote location.

http://WWW.PRW.COM

Plastics & Rubber World - July/August 2019

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