When Kia’s first-ever manufacturing facility in Europe is fully operational, it will establish new benchmarks for productivity — manufacturing 100 cars per employee per year – the culmination of a 1 billion euro investment.
The new Kia five-door hatchback, designed, engineered and developed especially for European customers, will start rolling off the production lines at Kia new facility in Zilina, about 125 miles northwest of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The car and the factory will play an important role in establishing Kia as a major player in European automotive markets.
“To achieve further growth in Europe, we needed to fully understand our customer’s requirements, learn exactly what European customers want and develop a European-style car, to be made locally In Europe,” said In-Kyu Bae, president and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia (KMS). “Another important aspect is that Zilina will cut down delivery times for European customers. Compared with our South Korea-built vehicles, the distance from factory to showroom is so much shorter and by building cars in Europe we no longer have to pay import taxes.”
Sang-Ho Moon, senior director and head of production at KMS, has spent the past year getting the factory built and its 1,300 employees ready to start full production.
“Our target is to reach the stability required to make sure everything is right,” he said. “We have a unique opportunity to achieve truly excellent product quality with a new plant, a new model, new employees and new suppliers. We have the chance to do some things differently, and it is a great new challenge. We are creating a new history both for Kia and for Eastern Europe and developing a new factory culture.
Site layout at the Zilina plant has been particularly important, as the winter weather in Slovakia can get very, very cold.
“The way the factory has been designed means that people or vehicles do not have to go outside, which is very important in the winter, and the offices for the managers of each shop (press, body, paint and final assembly) are situated so they can see the processes are running smoothly,” Moon said. “From my office I can see a number of areas and there’s a constant visual check. We will be able to produce 300,000 cars a year at a rate of one unit per minute and it has been a great advantage to build our new facility on a greenfield site.”
Production will start with 5,000 models this year, rising to 150,000 units in 2007. In 2008, production will increase to 225,000 vehicles, with full annual capacity (300,000 units) achieved in 2010.
By the end of 2009 KMS, will have recruited 3,000 employees to run a three-shift operation. Alongside car assembly in Slovakia, Kia will manufacture diesel and gasoline engines and around 75 percent of all components will be sourced from European suppliers.
“I believe that with our all-new factory and our well-trained employees, we will establish highly competitive production levels and deliver top class, high quality products that will have immense appeal to consumers across Europe,” Bae said.
For MORE NEWS BRIEFS, click here.
For a FREE SUBSCRIPTION to Expansion Management, click here.
Go to INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHTS to read more about other news and articles about international expansions.
Go to INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHTS to read more about other news and articles about this industry sector.
Means the article is accessible only to our magazine subscribers.
