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to develop a new car transporter named Race Box. By completely changing and tailoring the inside for storing and securing cars, we can market it to a different set of customers.
“ Two other product development projects resulted in two further product ranges; the A Transporter and Race Sport. These two models were developed at the same time and share a chassis. The A Transporter is an open car transporter and the Race Sport is an enclosed car transporter.
“ Thus, we have two product ranges aimed at slightly different audiences, even though they share similarities. This again shows how one design project has yielded two ranges from a single chassis,” Lewis informs.
On the production side, Brian James recently implemented a change from cell production to an assembly production line. Lewis sheds light on the motivation behind this transition and its impact on productivity.
“ As we have launched many enclosed trailers, the volume in that segment of the business has significantly increased. This prompted us to completely rethink our assembly process. Previously, we operated two separate assembly factories: one for open trailers and another for enclosed trailers. The open trailer assembly line handled a higher volume of simpler products, while the enclosed trailers, which had lower volumes and higher average values, involved a more complicated build and were produced in cells. In the last few months, we have implemented a change so that the enclosed trailers are now also built on an assembly line, resulting in two distinct assembly lines. We have had to figure out how to accommodate the significantly variable build times and processes from one trailer to the next within this line structure.
“ The advantages of this approach include the division and specialization of labor. We
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