Aubrey Rambau
UD Trucks Southern Africa (UDTSA) has completed a R30-million phase-one upgrade of its Rosslyn assembly plant, in Tshwane.
The aim of the investment was to modernise the plant to mirror the UD Trucks’ Ageo plant, in Japan.
Phase-one improvements included creating a much brighter interior through upgrading the floors, walls and roof; introducing new tooling and equipment; and modernising the plant’s jigs, fixtures and material supply.
“The investment maximises our ability to produce good quality trucks,” says UDTSA manufacturing director Aubrey Rambau.
Phase two will see further investments in 2018, including upgrading the ablution and canteen facilities.
UDTSA does not quantify the investment required for phase two of the modernisation programme.
Plant capacity at the Rosslyn plant is 7 500 units a year, with production of around 2 500 trucks last year.
The investment in the plant had more to do with modernising the facility than increasing capacity, says Rambau.
He adds that 2017 has also seen a focus on the development of staff at the plant, as it geared up for assembly of an extended line-up of UD trucks, through the introduction of new models to the local market. This included hosting a team from Japan, as part of a skills transfer programme.
Other training activities include establishing a senior assembler training programme, aimed at readying the company for a resurgence in the local truck market, and an automotive assembly programme that trained around 30 unemployed people from surrounding communities on the fundamentals of truck assembly.
UDTSA marketing director Rory Schulz does not want to divulge whether UDTSA is planning for a significant increase in assembly volumes.
“We have plans for new products, but we cannot say what products.”
What is known, however, is that plans are afoot for the assembly of Eicher trucks at the Rosslyn plant.
Currently imported from India, Eicher trucks is housed within Volvo Group Southern Africa. UD trucks also forms part of the Volvo group.
Rambau says UDTSA has officially received a request from within the group to assemble Eicher trucks at the Rosslyn facility.
A steering committee is currently mulling the feasibility of the project. A task team has also travelled to India to survey the Eicher plant.