Ford revs up Next-Gen Ranger
Investment of R16bn and a revamp of Silverton plant show faith in South Africa. By
Ford has invested almost R16-billion in its Silverton assembly plant in Pretoria for production of the Next-Generation Ranger, which will soon be shipped to more than 100 countries, including South Africa’s biggest markets, Europe and the UK.
The massively enlarged and modernised facility, reopened this year after a R10.3-billion revamp, includes an impressive on-site stamping plant, an automated body shop, and the only Ford-owned and -operated frame line in the world.
It is 95% automated, with 493 robots on the assembly line to ensure precision and consistency.
The factory covers an area of 100,000m² and boasts the “most advanced robotic manufacturing and quality control systems currently available”, the company says.
The global Ford Motor Company has three production hubs in its International Markets Group region for the Next-Gen Ranger – Silverton and two plants in Thailand.
It also has knock-down operations (where products are delivered in parts and assembled at the destination) in Vietnam and Cambodia for the Next-Gen Ranger, with plants in the US and Argentina to begin production in the new year.
Dianne Craig, president of Ford International Markets Group (IMG), said at the Silverton launch on 15 November that South Africa was an important part of Ford’s global Ranger manufacturing network and it was “fantastic to witness the $1.05-billion investment being utilised to modernise and transform the Silverton assembly plant to produce vehicles of the absolute best quality for customers around the world”.
Part of the investment includes R5.5-billion for tooling at major supplier companies and a R600-million injection into its Struandale Engine Plant in Gqeberha, which produces the Next-Gen Ranger engines for South Africa and its export markets.
Investing in the Struandale Engine Plant has helped Ford to introduce a 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine programme, and upgrades for the Next-Gen Ranger on the existing assembly line for the 2.0L single turbo and 2.0-litre B-turbo diesel engines.
Andrea Cavallaro, director of operations,
Ford IMG, said the company had invested effort, resources and the latest technologies to ensure the Next-Gen Ranger is not only world-class, but also that it is produced in a plant that equals the best in the world.
Ford’s strategic decisions have included bringing stamping operations and frame manufacture in-house, to ensure complete control of the production quality. Bringing suppliers closer to the plant in the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has also helped to localise production and reduce costs.
“The process put in today guarantees that the components going on to the assembly line for every Next-Gen Ranger are of the highest quality,” said Cavallaro.
First launched in 2011, the Ranger is one of Ford’s most important brands on every continent. In total, 873,751 Rangers have been produced at the Silverton plant, with nearly 603,000 units exported, consistently placing it as the top light commercial vehicle export from South Africa.
Silverton has also been producing the Everest seven-seater SUV since 2016. But, with the new focus on the Next-Gen Ranger, the Next-Gen Everest and Next-Gen Ranger Raptor will be sourced from Thailand.
The Silverton upgrades will enable the plant to produce about 200,000 vehicles a year. With the introduction of a third shift, it has also helped to create an additional 1,200 jobs, which brings the Ford SA workforce to 5,500 employees. Throughout the supplier value chain, expanded with the creation of the SEZ, about 50,000 jobs have been added.
Ford SA CEO Neale Hill told that Transnet’s troubles, which include costly industrial action, cable theft and low productivity, had been crippling for the automotive and other sectors.
Three force majeures have been declared this year, and the ruinous 11-day wage strike, which finally ended on 20 October, affected ports and rail services across the country and cost South Africa the opportunity to move R65.3-billion worth of goods.
It set back the launch of the new Ranger, as Ford waited for parts from other markets.
“We were waiting for components which ultimately didn’t get here on time. What happens is our production line stops. And then, when you are trying to get vehicles out of the country, you have ships due to dock that have very limited dwell time [in South African waters] to offload and
onload, before continuing the journey to meet shipping schedules. Then you have a strike and 90 vessels are bobbing out at sea outside Durban; it doesn’t happen,” Hill explained.
“We’re surviving on the heavy trucking industry at the moment, which my trucking counterparts are loving because of the demand for trucks. But we’re chewing up the roads, killing fellow road users – as we’ve seen in some horrific accidents – and it is adding costs to material we import and export, which makes us uncompetitive from a cost perspective for South Africa to be seen as a viable production source going forward. It has a lot of downstream impact.”
Ford has been pushing for a high-capacity rail corridor from its plant in Silverton to Gqeberha, because that port has enough space to store vehicles on the wharf, which reduces the amount of handling and processing of vehicles. The Eastern Cape provincial government has backed the call.
With only the Durban route functional, manufacturers transport vehicles via rail to Cato Ridge, where they are placed on trucks and driven to Durban port. That means up to three “handling events” of vehicles before they land on a ship. “It’s inefficient, vehicles get damaged and it’s labour-intensive.”
Ford has taken a multifaceted approach to address the challenge, which includes “heavy” engagements with state bodies. Hill spoke of ongoing engagements with Transnet about its commercial contractual obligations, which it is not meeting.
It has also engaged with the departments of Trade and Industry and Public Enterprises, as well as the Presidency. Provincial governments have shown more support, from David Makhura and Panyaza Lesufi in Gauteng to Oscar Mabuyane in the Eastern Cape.
Despite what politicians would refer to as “challenges”, Hill said Ford believes in the country and the company’s legacy.
“This is about the 5,500 people that we have working here. It’s about the jobs that we create and the lives of our people. It’s about making an investment and promoting South Africa as a place where we can do business and where we should do business.”
But it has to be economically viable, which does get harder when the country scores so many own goals.
“It’s also a compelling reason that we keep on promoting this as the place to invest in and we will find ways to overcome the challenges. That’s the resilience that we have to have.”