Land Rover Factory Tour tomorrow
Discussion
went on the tour yonks ago (15 years?)- brilliant!
Have found my write up for the Cornwall and Devon Land Rover Club mag which I edited at the time. Sorry in advance for the length. My old website is dead so I can't just put the URL. It will be very interesting to see what has/hasn't changed
Land Rover Factory Visit
Thursday 7th November was a memorable day for several reasons. Most obvious was visiting the Land Rover factory at Lode Lane. Another was missing the M42 turn off the M5 to get to the factory - there is always some mishap as I drive to Birmingham and it always has something to do with the M42 - so much for 42 being the answer to life, the universe and everything.
I drove up separately rather than in the mini-bus hired for the occasion. I was going to be travelling up with my Dad who was going to an exhibition with him paying, however, he pulled out at the last minute so I went up in Red Dwarf". We all arrived at the factory gates with enough time to scoff lunch. At 1pm we went into the tour suite where we were treated to old Camel Trophy videos while we waited for the other party to arrive.
We were introduced to our guides for the day, two guys who had worked at LR for many years and were in semi-retirement. They had been involved in virtually all part of the production process and knew just about everything about production. After a brief safety talk we were split into two groups. Our group went round the Discovery lines and Defender, while the others went to the transmission lines.
The Body Production Lines
There is a significant difference in the production methods for the Disco' and the Defender. The Disco's body is produced in the Body Shop and welded etc by robots, eventually the body and contents are married to the rolling chassis and drivetrain. The Defender on the other hand is built up directly on the chassis. As we walked down the Disco' line we saw the teams install glass very efficiently, for example the windscreen was installed in about 1 minute and the rear side glass put in within the time it has taken you to read this sentence.
The teams work in small "cells" which have a given number of tasks to do. A couple of guys even had enough time to come over and talk to us about the Discovery. They were proud of what they do and were pleased to hear that we enjoyed them also. Terry Shepherd gave farmers a bad reputation by saying that he didn't really use his Disco on the farm which was scandalous to these Brummie workers. They were intrigued to know where I find the 4WD capabilities of the Land Rover useful in repairing computers!
Along side the body line are two others, the door's and the chassis. The chassis is built separately from the body as are the doors. The doors are fitted to the vehicle in the body shop, but are removed for ease of access on the line and for trim etc to be fitted. The chassis is built up to a rolling chassis which eventually has the body dropped onto it. We saw normal mild steel exhausts and even a store bin full of stainless steel exhausts. We were told that every single Discovery on the line was an order with a customer for each one. We were also told that every one is different and that there was about 10,000 combinations specs so we were unlikely to see two identical vehicles on the line.
When the body is dropped on they use two very long bolts to guide the body down onto the chassis. On the Disco' there are only 10 bolts that hold the body onto the chassis. There is a bloke on a trolley who just bolts the body down. This contrasts with the way that the Defender is built. The Defender starts as a chassis. The transmission is installed as a single unit and props are bolted onto the axles. This rolling chassis then enters the main assembly area. The bulkhead is the first body part to be bolted on followed by the back body and wings. The wings are installed as a sub assembly. Looking down the line is like reading one of the magazines showing a rebuild, except that there is every variation on the line. There were an awful lot of US spec Defender 90's that day. We were lucky as we arrived on the line during a work break when the whole line stops for 10 minutes. This meant that we could walk down the line itself and several people were seen crawling over various motors. Of particular interest to Terry, Mathew and myself was the arrangement of the part external roll cage on US spec Defenders and how it compared to the Defender "Wolf" XD's we also had in bits beside us.
One thing that we were told in our safety talk was to be aware of the fork lift trucks. These trucks provided the parts for the line in a "Just in time" scheme and as it would take 2 hours to `re-sequence' the line if a part was missed they drove like bats out of hell. What I wanted to know was how come they all had small ghetto-blasters strapped to the back. I suppose the louder the volume coming from the stereo the faster the drivers went, what's known as the XR3i factor!
The Rolling Road Test Stations
We moved on from the lines to the rolling roads, where all the vehicles go for test. The factory we were in had 6 fully digital rolling roads. The driver puts the vehicle into the booth, gets the remote control and does a series of tests. These range from in gear acceleration to braking. Once the vehicle has passed this then out it goes to the holding area before being delivered to its respective owner. Reg, our guide, was answering all of our questions with straight answers and very knowledgeable he was too. He told of how a few years ago Land Rover had needed 300 workers for the expansion of the Discovery line. LR got 5000 replies, which were ALL interviewed. Even to this day (allegedly!) LR doesn't advertise for any jobs but just reaches for its list and phones people. Reg also told us that staff do not get any special treatment or discounts when going to buy a Land Rover, they have to go to a dealer like the rest of us! He explained that this was because they cannot produce enough Land Rovers for full paying customers, never mind cheaper ones for staff.
Engine Production Lines
We had now moved onto the engine lines. We saw the TDi being put together, which was a sobering experience. We watched one lady who proceeded to show us just how to go about putting pistons into blocks. She put the bolts onto the conrods, turned the block the normal way up, placed four pots onto the bores, set the gaps on the rings into the right place and dropped the piston into the bore. She repeated this for the other three pistons and with a squirt of oil and a pushrod she just shoved the pistons into the block. This took under 2 minutes. She did it so quickly that several of us watched her do it again! And to think of the agony of ring compressors...
Next stop was the V8 line. Our start point was near the end next to the testing stations. Reg informed us that this was a newish, fully computerised system. The old system took ages to test the engine and once it decided that an engine had failed, someone had to strip the engine to find out what was wrong. The new system tests the engine better and even says what is wrong with it.
The final stop (via a loo) was back to the tour suite for coffee and to await the return of our colleagues. We then got to sample the accessories shop! We could have most of the accessories from the brochures that Dealers can provide but at factory prices. Most of us bought something, several badges a pen or two, even a pewter model of a 110. We all got a complementary poster as well.
To Finish
A brilliant day was had by one and all so thank you to Dave Arnold for organising it. Maybe more of you will want to go next year. The final reason that the day was memorable was on the way home. I had to fill up with diesel at a service station. Not so memorable you might say, problem was it was 64.9p per litre which is over £3 per gallon! My first ever £60 tank of fuel! How things have changed!
Have found my write up for the Cornwall and Devon Land Rover Club mag which I edited at the time. Sorry in advance for the length. My old website is dead so I can't just put the URL. It will be very interesting to see what has/hasn't changed
Land Rover Factory Visit
Thursday 7th November was a memorable day for several reasons. Most obvious was visiting the Land Rover factory at Lode Lane. Another was missing the M42 turn off the M5 to get to the factory - there is always some mishap as I drive to Birmingham and it always has something to do with the M42 - so much for 42 being the answer to life, the universe and everything.
I drove up separately rather than in the mini-bus hired for the occasion. I was going to be travelling up with my Dad who was going to an exhibition with him paying, however, he pulled out at the last minute so I went up in Red Dwarf". We all arrived at the factory gates with enough time to scoff lunch. At 1pm we went into the tour suite where we were treated to old Camel Trophy videos while we waited for the other party to arrive.
We were introduced to our guides for the day, two guys who had worked at LR for many years and were in semi-retirement. They had been involved in virtually all part of the production process and knew just about everything about production. After a brief safety talk we were split into two groups. Our group went round the Discovery lines and Defender, while the others went to the transmission lines.
The Body Production Lines
There is a significant difference in the production methods for the Disco' and the Defender. The Disco's body is produced in the Body Shop and welded etc by robots, eventually the body and contents are married to the rolling chassis and drivetrain. The Defender on the other hand is built up directly on the chassis. As we walked down the Disco' line we saw the teams install glass very efficiently, for example the windscreen was installed in about 1 minute and the rear side glass put in within the time it has taken you to read this sentence.
The teams work in small "cells" which have a given number of tasks to do. A couple of guys even had enough time to come over and talk to us about the Discovery. They were proud of what they do and were pleased to hear that we enjoyed them also. Terry Shepherd gave farmers a bad reputation by saying that he didn't really use his Disco on the farm which was scandalous to these Brummie workers. They were intrigued to know where I find the 4WD capabilities of the Land Rover useful in repairing computers!
Along side the body line are two others, the door's and the chassis. The chassis is built separately from the body as are the doors. The doors are fitted to the vehicle in the body shop, but are removed for ease of access on the line and for trim etc to be fitted. The chassis is built up to a rolling chassis which eventually has the body dropped onto it. We saw normal mild steel exhausts and even a store bin full of stainless steel exhausts. We were told that every single Discovery on the line was an order with a customer for each one. We were also told that every one is different and that there was about 10,000 combinations specs so we were unlikely to see two identical vehicles on the line.
When the body is dropped on they use two very long bolts to guide the body down onto the chassis. On the Disco' there are only 10 bolts that hold the body onto the chassis. There is a bloke on a trolley who just bolts the body down. This contrasts with the way that the Defender is built. The Defender starts as a chassis. The transmission is installed as a single unit and props are bolted onto the axles. This rolling chassis then enters the main assembly area. The bulkhead is the first body part to be bolted on followed by the back body and wings. The wings are installed as a sub assembly. Looking down the line is like reading one of the magazines showing a rebuild, except that there is every variation on the line. There were an awful lot of US spec Defender 90's that day. We were lucky as we arrived on the line during a work break when the whole line stops for 10 minutes. This meant that we could walk down the line itself and several people were seen crawling over various motors. Of particular interest to Terry, Mathew and myself was the arrangement of the part external roll cage on US spec Defenders and how it compared to the Defender "Wolf" XD's we also had in bits beside us.
One thing that we were told in our safety talk was to be aware of the fork lift trucks. These trucks provided the parts for the line in a "Just in time" scheme and as it would take 2 hours to `re-sequence' the line if a part was missed they drove like bats out of hell. What I wanted to know was how come they all had small ghetto-blasters strapped to the back. I suppose the louder the volume coming from the stereo the faster the drivers went, what's known as the XR3i factor!
The Rolling Road Test Stations
We moved on from the lines to the rolling roads, where all the vehicles go for test. The factory we were in had 6 fully digital rolling roads. The driver puts the vehicle into the booth, gets the remote control and does a series of tests. These range from in gear acceleration to braking. Once the vehicle has passed this then out it goes to the holding area before being delivered to its respective owner. Reg, our guide, was answering all of our questions with straight answers and very knowledgeable he was too. He told of how a few years ago Land Rover had needed 300 workers for the expansion of the Discovery line. LR got 5000 replies, which were ALL interviewed. Even to this day (allegedly!) LR doesn't advertise for any jobs but just reaches for its list and phones people. Reg also told us that staff do not get any special treatment or discounts when going to buy a Land Rover, they have to go to a dealer like the rest of us! He explained that this was because they cannot produce enough Land Rovers for full paying customers, never mind cheaper ones for staff.
Engine Production Lines
We had now moved onto the engine lines. We saw the TDi being put together, which was a sobering experience. We watched one lady who proceeded to show us just how to go about putting pistons into blocks. She put the bolts onto the conrods, turned the block the normal way up, placed four pots onto the bores, set the gaps on the rings into the right place and dropped the piston into the bore. She repeated this for the other three pistons and with a squirt of oil and a pushrod she just shoved the pistons into the block. This took under 2 minutes. She did it so quickly that several of us watched her do it again! And to think of the agony of ring compressors...
Next stop was the V8 line. Our start point was near the end next to the testing stations. Reg informed us that this was a newish, fully computerised system. The old system took ages to test the engine and once it decided that an engine had failed, someone had to strip the engine to find out what was wrong. The new system tests the engine better and even says what is wrong with it.
The final stop (via a loo) was back to the tour suite for coffee and to await the return of our colleagues. We then got to sample the accessories shop! We could have most of the accessories from the brochures that Dealers can provide but at factory prices. Most of us bought something, several badges a pen or two, even a pewter model of a 110. We all got a complementary poster as well.
To Finish
A brilliant day was had by one and all so thank you to Dave Arnold for organising it. Maybe more of you will want to go next year. The final reason that the day was memorable was on the way home. I had to fill up with diesel at a service station. Not so memorable you might say, problem was it was 64.9p per litre which is over £3 per gallon! My first ever £60 tank of fuel! How things have changed!
Edited by kourgath on Friday 18th November 20:48
Apologies for the lack of photos, inevitably we were not allowed to take any on the tour.
Hi again. Overall this was a great day out, there were about 15 defender2 forum members in attendance. The day started badly for me with my alarm failing to wake me and I had to jump out of bed and straight into the 110 in order to catch my lift. I was rather embarrased that the other chap who was being given a lift had come 170 miles for his lift, and I was late having travelled 10 miles. Anyway I found that at at an indicated 85mph a fair breeze inside the cabin is evident.
As it happened Stu had broken down in his 2 month old Defender the night before, had left his Defender in Grimsby and LR rescue had arranged for him to have a brand new Jag XF for a few days. His Puma had an ecu issue and the dealership were unable to sort it out, so I was chauferred to Soliull in the Jag.
We were booked on the bronze tour which was just the factory tour, you could pay more dosh and have an off road experience. The course was built out of the spoil from digging the factory down into a 400,000 ton hole when it was expanded by BMW as it is very close to housing.
The reception hut is pretty posh with a shop selling £12 mugs and other overpriced bikes and cuddly toys. There is a fair collection of LR vehicles but we didn't really have time to check these out. After a half hour of out of date corporate video and safety instructions we were kitted out. Safety glasses, ear defenders, high viz, tube bandages to cover rings and watches. We were asked if any of us had pacemakers as there was a magnetic field in the RR assembly line that had allegedly interfered with somebodies pacemaker in the past.
Transport around the site was by 2 15 seat TD5 147's with factory rear aircon, a first on me. These were stretched at the factory, but are not road legal and limited to 20mph allegedly. Our tour guide was Geoff, who was fairly fiesty and made it clear that he wasn't going to take any crap about Defender build quality issues from our lot!
First stop was the press shop, building cost £35m, press cost £35m, investment by BMW. A hugely impressive set up where they made most of the panels for LR's except the Defender. Defender panels are bought in, as are most of the other Defender components including chassis from GKN. The press was down for a die change so we didn't see it working fully. About half of the metal in a pressing is cut out and recycled.
Next we were off to the assembly lines. One of our lot said that you could watch a video of a car factory and get the same effect, but I have never been onsite at a manufacturing facility like this and was in awe. Sparks flying, guys loading up the robots, partly built chassis moving on lines above your head, watching the robots. We saw an employee checking welds with ultrasound. DHL have the contract on moving materials around the site, inside the factory on forklifts to workstations, and getting them to the site. Everywhere we went there were forklifts shifting gear, expert drivers who would maneuver only feet from us with big stills on the forks.
The cost of stopping production at the plant is £6k a minute, and it is not unusual for parts to be helicoptered on site. There is a supply of about 3 days of body panels. Until 2006 the press made Mini panels after all BMW made the investment.
Finally we were off to the body assembly lines for RR and Defender. This was a much older building, the site has had 2 billion dollars invested in it, but this building was as you would expect a British car manufacturer facilities to look like, wooden revolving door, brick building with mould covered northern lights and a small wooden 1960's Land Rover plaque outside. This building was quite small and cramped. We saw quite a few top end RR's on the line. RR's are very much hand built after the body and chassis come together. Autobiography's used to be broken down from a completed vehicle and rebuilt, but now they are fully built on the line. The RR line has some Japanese work system, if the worker on a station has a problem he presses a button and the line stops and music relevant to his station plays until a supervisor sorts it out. Wierd!
The primary reason for the tour was the Defender line. It would seem most of the Defender is bought in, and I can only assume for the cheapest price LR can screw the suppliers for. We saw Defender chassis stored outside. There was a stack of chassis on the line which others said they saw traces of corrosion, the paint on the chassis looked thin. When asked why a galvansied chassis was not an option, we were told LR were in the business of selling cars and they needed to have a finite life.
70% of Defender production goes abroad and we saw full softop 90's for export, not a UK product apparently. I think this means that the single line will produce 30 Defenders in a week until the line closes eventually. The chassis went onto the line and the suspension was added and a crane used to lift it onto the first few stations, then a moving line takes over. The drivetrain is added and then the bulkhead. I think its fair to say working on the Defender line is a difficult job. Handbuilt, and with many different configurations, teamwork is clearly essential for lots of the build. I think the total build for a Defender takes 8 hours, with about 5 hours on the line. There was a fair bit of bodywork respraying going on. There is a fairly large rectification bay fixing issues which are flagged on the line, I would imagine being handbuilt if a door won't close properly it can take far longer to sort than the line would allow. We watched a door get its panel gap and ability to close adjusted with a big rubber mallet.
A great day out and a chance to see the Defender line in full flow before it closes for good. Clearly management are not fully behind this "dinosaur" of a vehicle, quality is not what it could be, and the pressure for emissions improvements and lightness mean its demise. It was interesting to note the above post when tdi engines were built in house, and are now bought from Ford and built in Dagenham.
The LR tour bus was like this:
Only pic of the day in the pub car park:
Hi again. Overall this was a great day out, there were about 15 defender2 forum members in attendance. The day started badly for me with my alarm failing to wake me and I had to jump out of bed and straight into the 110 in order to catch my lift. I was rather embarrased that the other chap who was being given a lift had come 170 miles for his lift, and I was late having travelled 10 miles. Anyway I found that at at an indicated 85mph a fair breeze inside the cabin is evident.
As it happened Stu had broken down in his 2 month old Defender the night before, had left his Defender in Grimsby and LR rescue had arranged for him to have a brand new Jag XF for a few days. His Puma had an ecu issue and the dealership were unable to sort it out, so I was chauferred to Soliull in the Jag.
We were booked on the bronze tour which was just the factory tour, you could pay more dosh and have an off road experience. The course was built out of the spoil from digging the factory down into a 400,000 ton hole when it was expanded by BMW as it is very close to housing.
The reception hut is pretty posh with a shop selling £12 mugs and other overpriced bikes and cuddly toys. There is a fair collection of LR vehicles but we didn't really have time to check these out. After a half hour of out of date corporate video and safety instructions we were kitted out. Safety glasses, ear defenders, high viz, tube bandages to cover rings and watches. We were asked if any of us had pacemakers as there was a magnetic field in the RR assembly line that had allegedly interfered with somebodies pacemaker in the past.
Transport around the site was by 2 15 seat TD5 147's with factory rear aircon, a first on me. These were stretched at the factory, but are not road legal and limited to 20mph allegedly. Our tour guide was Geoff, who was fairly fiesty and made it clear that he wasn't going to take any crap about Defender build quality issues from our lot!
First stop was the press shop, building cost £35m, press cost £35m, investment by BMW. A hugely impressive set up where they made most of the panels for LR's except the Defender. Defender panels are bought in, as are most of the other Defender components including chassis from GKN. The press was down for a die change so we didn't see it working fully. About half of the metal in a pressing is cut out and recycled.
Next we were off to the assembly lines. One of our lot said that you could watch a video of a car factory and get the same effect, but I have never been onsite at a manufacturing facility like this and was in awe. Sparks flying, guys loading up the robots, partly built chassis moving on lines above your head, watching the robots. We saw an employee checking welds with ultrasound. DHL have the contract on moving materials around the site, inside the factory on forklifts to workstations, and getting them to the site. Everywhere we went there were forklifts shifting gear, expert drivers who would maneuver only feet from us with big stills on the forks.
The cost of stopping production at the plant is £6k a minute, and it is not unusual for parts to be helicoptered on site. There is a supply of about 3 days of body panels. Until 2006 the press made Mini panels after all BMW made the investment.
Finally we were off to the body assembly lines for RR and Defender. This was a much older building, the site has had 2 billion dollars invested in it, but this building was as you would expect a British car manufacturer facilities to look like, wooden revolving door, brick building with mould covered northern lights and a small wooden 1960's Land Rover plaque outside. This building was quite small and cramped. We saw quite a few top end RR's on the line. RR's are very much hand built after the body and chassis come together. Autobiography's used to be broken down from a completed vehicle and rebuilt, but now they are fully built on the line. The RR line has some Japanese work system, if the worker on a station has a problem he presses a button and the line stops and music relevant to his station plays until a supervisor sorts it out. Wierd!
The primary reason for the tour was the Defender line. It would seem most of the Defender is bought in, and I can only assume for the cheapest price LR can screw the suppliers for. We saw Defender chassis stored outside. There was a stack of chassis on the line which others said they saw traces of corrosion, the paint on the chassis looked thin. When asked why a galvansied chassis was not an option, we were told LR were in the business of selling cars and they needed to have a finite life.
70% of Defender production goes abroad and we saw full softop 90's for export, not a UK product apparently. I think this means that the single line will produce 30 Defenders in a week until the line closes eventually. The chassis went onto the line and the suspension was added and a crane used to lift it onto the first few stations, then a moving line takes over. The drivetrain is added and then the bulkhead. I think its fair to say working on the Defender line is a difficult job. Handbuilt, and with many different configurations, teamwork is clearly essential for lots of the build. I think the total build for a Defender takes 8 hours, with about 5 hours on the line. There was a fair bit of bodywork respraying going on. There is a fairly large rectification bay fixing issues which are flagged on the line, I would imagine being handbuilt if a door won't close properly it can take far longer to sort than the line would allow. We watched a door get its panel gap and ability to close adjusted with a big rubber mallet.
A great day out and a chance to see the Defender line in full flow before it closes for good. Clearly management are not fully behind this "dinosaur" of a vehicle, quality is not what it could be, and the pressure for emissions improvements and lightness mean its demise. It was interesting to note the above post when tdi engines were built in house, and are now bought from Ford and built in Dagenham.
The LR tour bus was like this:
Only pic of the day in the pub car park:
JSG said:
Hi Lost in Espace,
I guess you were Stu's mate?
It was well worth the trip - I'd not been on the tour before and is was interesting to see how much effort goes in to building a Defender by hand over the D4 and L322.
If only they'd galvanise the chassis before building them ...
Then know one would ever buy another one if they did that I guess you were Stu's mate?
It was well worth the trip - I'd not been on the tour before and is was interesting to see how much effort goes in to building a Defender by hand over the D4 and L322.
If only they'd galvanise the chassis before building them ...
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