On the highway out from Lyon to the town of Bourg-en-Brasse in the southwestern corner of France, the vista that greets you is one of idyllic countryside, with ripening golden-brown wheat fields punctuated by rolling, forested hills.
On a mild, bright and sunny September day, it is hard to imagine that anyone would coop themselves up inside a factory with its heat, noise, grease and chemical aroma to make trucks, rather than enjoy the glorious outdoors. But the French take enough pride in their automotive history and their manufacturing to put their heads down and go at it, making some of the best trucks in the world.
We are headed to the EMEA assembly facility of Renault Trucks, where it makes the trucks that also run in our part of the world, the Middle East. It’s a no-brainer that in order to be as robust as they are and run as well as they do in the trying conditions of the Middle East, the trucks have to be built in an equally robust process. And in this the factory does not disappoint.
Jean-Philippe Bertuzzi, PR manager, Corporate Comm and Media Relations, greets us at the factory. Our guide for the tour, he informs us that Renault Truck’s Bourg-en-Brasse facility is spread over 120 hectares on which stand 11 buildings, including the workshops for various components and stages in the pre-assembly stage.
“The plant assembles the T-high, the T sleeper cab, the K and the C models. Renault Trucks has two C models, the 2.5m-wide cab and the 2.3m-wide one. The former is the one that is assembles here. There are 1350 employees in the facility, 99% of whom work on the factory floor,” Bertuzzi says.
“For us the production process starts not at the factory but right at the moment a customer signs on the dotted line with any of our dealers. They decide which particular truck the customer needs for his operations, and in what configuration. After they agree on the specifics, our work starts. So, you can surmise that all trucks produced here are made to order. The configurations, specifications and requirements of each and every truck have been pre-decided by the customer in consultation with the dealer. Once the specification reaches us, we validate it at our Saint Priest facility in Lyon, and if all options ordered are cleared then the order passes to this plant for the assembly to begin.”
The first step in the process is issuance of a computer-generated fabrication number. Each truck to be made has its own unique number, which is its internal identification number and with which all its options are linked. Bertuzzi explains that a truck actually begins life as a piece of paper, with its fabrication number and all other details about it moving down the assembly line as the vehicle gets built component by component.
“The number is communicated to all our suppliers and they then have to deliver us all the parts and components specified on the paper as asked. So this fabrication number controls all the logistics inside the factory. All of the required components arrive at the factory one day before the assembly of the truck begins. This enables us to keep a low inventory and operate on a very lean basis, which reduces overheads.”
The daily production of the plant is 136 vehicles in a single shift operation and, of course only the components and materials that will go towards the day’s production can be found on the factory floor on any given day, after arriving at the plant the day before, Bertuzzi explains.
“The line is a mixed assembly operation, which means there are no separate lines for our various products. All our models are made on the same single assembly line, whether it’s a T, C, D or any other range,” he adds.
“This also means that the workers here are required to have knowledge and training on all the various models and assembly groups. They do not specialise on any model or any part of the production process. Instead, they are periodically rotated around the various sectors of the assembly line so that they remain adept at the various skills that we require. This not only gives them more knowledge of the entire process, but also makes their jobs less monotonous. For the company, the added advantage is the flexibility that such a system gives us.”
The actual truck starts out as a chassis. The bare metal frame, made according to the specs associated with the fabrication number, leaves the chassis fabrication shop at the beginning of the line on an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) moving on to the next station. A frame leaves the fabrication area every seven minutes. And then the AGV moves again to the next station, after expert hands have completed a particular stage of assembly. But that does not mean the time interval is a uniform seven minutes at all stations. It may vary depending on the complexity of the process.
Speaking of expert hands, Bertuzzi reveals that the average age of the workforce on the assembly line is 42 years. “We find this to be the optimum age. A line worker needs a certain amount of time to practice his skills in order to become proficient at all the tasks. And efficiency also drops off after a certain age. The average age now is the optimum from a quality point of view and allows us to have the most efficient workforce, so we try to keep it at this range through rotation of workers.”
As a World Class Manufacturing (WCM) certified plant the facility follows some innovative techniques to save time and effort while still ensuring precision. One such is ‘Pick to Light’. When parts are delivered to any station they come in trays or bins arranged in arrays. Each tray or bin has a small light attached to it. If the light is on, then the worker is required to pick a part from that particular tray for the next vehicle that is arriving at his station. The requirement is to always pick one single part and then press a button next to the light. If the light comes on again then he is required to pick another part, and so on. But if it stays off then he has completed his part-picking from that tray.
Another interesting feature of the assembly of Renault Trucks is that the process is performed upside-down. This is one of the results of synergies within the Volvo Group which took over Renault Trucks in 2001. “Previously the trucks were assembled the right side up, but that meant workers had to stand under the vehicle and work with arms raised up high over their heads throughout their shifts. This led to fatigue and health issues,” says Bertuzzi.
When we joined the Volvo Group, we adopted their assembly technique, which is to turn the vehicle upside down to assemble it, getting it at a more natural, fatigue-free position for the workers for more precision.
But what is upside down must be set upright again. At a particular point in the assembly process, when the frame has been completely worked on, a specially-designed overhead crane lifts up the vehicle and flips it in midair and sets it down the right side up to continue down the line for the main body and sheet metal to be attached.
That body is also delivered by an aerial route. Finished body shells are lifted up and placed on overhead conveyors, which carry the shells to the station where they will be mated to a chassis. The chassis is placed on a designated spot on the assembly line and the overhead body shell carrier is electronically precision guided to lower and place the shell exactly over the required points of the chassis. The two are then joined together by expert hands at the station and set on their way to continue down the line for further processes.
Finally, when a finished truck rolls off the line it goes straight to the test bench, where it is extensively tested and inspected before being pronounced worthy to sport the Renault Trucks brand. After a visual inspection of key components and fittings, the truck is sent to the factory’s test track.
The first lap around the speed ring is to warm it up. It’s then taken up to its maximum speed of 90kmh-plus. After a lap at this speed during which its stability is also tested on the speed ring’s curves, the test driver slams the brake pedal hard at a designated point on the track to test the emergency braking. To pass the test the vehicle has to stop within the stipulated 81m distance marked on the track, hauling down from 90kmh to a standstill.
And with the meticulous thought behind the assembly operations, coupled with precisions operations and expert hands performing to high levels of trained and practised exactitude, it is no wonder that almost all the trucks sail through with flying colours.
Electric is the way forward
Close on the heels of Renault Trucks announcing its new all-electric ZE range, Francois Perrot, commercial director, Renault Trucks International, feels that the mobility solution of the future, even in the trucks segment, will be electric. And that future is upon us already.
Speaking with T&FME on the sidelines of the visit to Renault Trucks’ production base in Lyon, he says: “Tightening official regulations and the way cities are implementing zero-emissions are together the key drivers towards electric vehicles. And what is impressive when you drive the electric trucks and cargo vehicles is that there is also zero noise and zero vibrations.
“This means you can drive these vehicles in cities at night, which is normally not authorised for bigger trucks and commercial vehicles. So there are a number of benefits. But this is, of course, the first step of commercialisation.”
Electromobility is a big trend that everyone is talking about in the industry, he says. The new ZE electric range that Renault Trucks announced in August is a step towards meeting those trends. In that range, the new Renault Master is produced by Renault SA, with Renault Trucks its distributors.
“Renault SA is a big seller of electric cars and in this case, they have really leveraged the experience they have in electric cars for the driveline of the new ZE series Master,” Perrot says.
Discussing Renault Trucks foray into the electromobility sector, he says: “Electromobility will be a big thing in the future. Apart from the Master, our start is with a 26t vehicle whose first application will be in the refuse/garbage sector. That’s because this is a stop and go application, which is extremely demanding. It is also an application that takes place in the early hours of the morning. Typically, refuse trucks consume between 80-120 litres of diesel for every 100km – an extremely high figure when you consider that a normal heavy-duty truck consumes in the area of 30-35 litres per 100km.”
In this segment Renault Trucks believes electricity is the best way forward and that way forward starts immediately, he adds, even though the products are still expensive and still produced in low volumes. “But they are extremely well-suited to the application. We believe in this instance the TCO will be very competitive, with the added benefit that the reduced noise levels will allow for a bigger operating time window in urban areas.”
Renault Trucks will also offer another electric truck, a 16t model for city distribution, with similar technology adapted for its gross vehicle weight.
“We can offer a travel range of up to 250km, however, it may take more time for customer acceptance in the market because to get a 250km range we need four packs of batteries, which are still expensive. The TCO from a customer perspective is still higher than diesel and as our customers are business people, it will not be a viable option if it’s way too expensive for them. But it’s important to start,” says Perrot.
“There are customers who are interested and there is a need to learn and understand the business model with which we can operate and also important for our customers to understand how to use those vehicles. There is a limited autonomy at this stage, and the vehicles cost more. So, it’s a change of business model. Whereas we need to adapt and develop the technology, our customers also need to adapt to the business ecosystem that goes with this new technology.”
