As part of Ford’s R15,8 billion investment in their Silverton facility, the Blue Oval will now also boast an automated and state-of-the-art stamping plant that will ensure their components are manufactured of the highest production quality.
Ford has always remained a key player in our local market and part of the reason behind that is their continued commitment and investment in their facilities within our country. The Ford Silverton Assembly Plant, just outside of Pretoria has now received a state-of-the-art stamping plant which is now in operation and will start producing components for the Next-Gen Ranger which will go into production later this year. The new technology will be able to manufacture the various inner and outer body panels required for all three body styles of the Ranger: Single Cab, SuperCab and Double Cab. Read more about Gareth Dean’s in-depth experience of the new Ford Ranger in Thailand here.
Rhys Davies, Site Transformation Manager at the facility stated: “Our new Stamping Plant is a first for Ford in South Africa,” after the automaker opted to produce their own stamping plant rather than outsource as was done before. The specialised facility measures in at 10 320 m2 or almost one and a half standard football fields.
The state-of-the-art stamping plant will “deliver the highest levels of quality and efficiency while also improving our plant capacity and efficiency with a higher level of automation, while eliminating the time, cost and potential damage incurred when transporting these parts by road.” This will enable Ford to deliver vehicles of the highest quality to customers in our market as well as those in 100 others around the world.
Jan Groenewald, Area Manager for the new facility states that “The Silverton Assembly Plant now has an installed capacity for 200 000 vehicles per year. When running at full capacity, the Stamping Plant will be processing 272 tons of steel per day over a three-shift system.” These upgrades follow the Six Sigma process, which ensures “a 99.997-percent probability that all parts produced are within specification, which means that all of the body parts that go into a Ranger will be of the highest production quality.”
