Automation for NZ autos

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 20, 13 October 1987, Page 11 (Supplement)

Automation for NZ autos

New Zealand's biggest car assembly company is to introduce an advanced system for the automated high quality body assembly of Ford and Mazda passenger cars. Vehicle Assemblers New Zealand Limited, newly established to assemble vehicles for Ford and Mazda, announced recently it would be installing an automated body shop at its Manukau City car assembly plant. Its president, Mr Peter Shaw, said the automated body shop would represent the biggest technological and quality advance seen in the New Zealand car assembly industry. Its installation would cost more than $10 million and involve the utilisation of advanced gantry robots and computer automation technology from West Germany and Italy. The body shop automation programme would involve 15 gantry robots. Their installation, representing the welding robots in the New Zealand car assembly industry, would be additional to previously announced technological

advances at the Manukau City plant which include an automatic final paint process and an advanced overhead conveyor system for moving vehicles through the assembly process. "This new programme is a giant step for the New Zealand car assembly industry," Mr Shaw said. "It will not only guarantee a significant quality edge for Ford and Mazda, but it will provide a modern and pleasant working environment with the removal of the heavy and dirty work in the present body shop. It will also provide valuable new skill training opportunities for our employees." No employees at Manukau City would lose their jobs because of the automation. This is because the gantry robots and computer automation technology was directed at allowing considerably more cars to be assembled than previously planned when fewer models were produced at the plant. In announcing the automation of the assembly plant's body shop, Mr Shaw said the initial employee training equipment would be introduced within three months. The full in-

stallation of the automated body shop would take place over the ChristmasNew Year production break. Historically, it had been believed low volume New Zealand assembly plants were not viable for extensive automation. However the project team overseeing the expansion of the Manukau City plant had, through the intensive study of world automation technology and its analysis with the local market environment, found that automation of the body shop was a viable, and necessary, proposition. Mr Shaw said the system would replace one where operators used heavy overhead electric welding machines. This cumbersome process, used widely in the New Zealand car assembly industry, was installed at the Manukau City plant thirteen years ago. "The body shop automation will ensure that a consistently high level of spot-welding quality is achieved by using the robot welding guns," he said. "When fully installed, the plant's automated gantry body shop will be the most modern of its type in the Southern Hemisphere."