From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report.

Sashnee Moodley:

Vehicle manufacturer Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa has showcased new investments at its Silverton facility, in Pretoria, which are over and above an initial R15.8-billion that the company invested in the plant. The new investments aim to improve production efficiency, customer satisfaction and the rate of repairs per 1 000 vehicles. Marleny Arnoldi visited the site.

Marleny Arnoldi:

Ford has been focused on improving efficiencies at Silverton especially since the launch of the New-Gen Ford Ranger in December last year. Some of the latest investments in the facility include a R22-million skid cleaning facility within the paint shop, which uses a 2 500 bar pressure water system to blast paint off the facility's 760 skids.

The skids are used to mount vehicle body parts for spray painting and movement throughout the assembly process. The skids can accumulate up to 8 kg of paint a year and would normally be cleaned on a yearly basis. With more regular cleaning, Ford ensures less dirt and contaminants in the paint shop and saves on cleaning cost.

Another investment Involved R20-million into a DeGould Auto Scan system, which is an artificial intelligence scanning system used for vehicle inspection.

The system takes high-definition, full-body images of every vehicle prior to being released from the Silverton plant.

Silverton plant manager Tim Day explains the scanning system can detect misbuilds, damage or defects that are smaller than can consistently be found by the human eye, and at a quicker pace of between 30 to 50 seconds per vehicle.

The Silverton plant is the only other plant of the Ford group outside of the US to use an automated vehicle inspection system.

The system has ensured quicker investigations of warranty claims and fewer costs attributed to the factory, since it can confirm that an issue was not present when the vehicle left the factory and rather happened during the shipping process or at a dealership.

Day elaborates on Ford's recent investments on technology and cultural improvements at Silverton.

Silverton plant manager Tim Day...

Marleny Arnoldi:

The Silverton plant is capable of producing 720 vehicles a day, or 200 000 vehicles a year, based on three shifts a day. More than 22 200 Next-Gen Rangers have been exported from South Africa, while just over 7 400 units have been sold locally, at the end of May.

This model was announced as the South Africa Car of the Year for 2023, marking the first bakkie, or pickup, to earn the coveted title since the competition began in 1986.

Ford admittedly had some issues with warranties in 2019, having recorded 34.7 repairs per 1 000 Rangers in that year, following a worse rate of repairs of 400 repairs per 1 000 vehicles between 2008 and 2010, but the company has come a long way in improving its manufacturing capability and inspections.

Day confirms that the Silverton plant is now performing above the Ford global average rate of repairs per 1 000 vehicles. He discusses Ford's evolution in recent years.

Silverton plant manager Tim Day...

Sashnee Moodley:

That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy. Don’t forget to listen to the audio version of our Engineering News daily email newsletter.