On the 27th November a small group from the young members section were fortunate enough to be given a tour of the Vauxhall Plant at Ellesmere Port. The plant has been in existence since the early 1960’s with the first car, the Vauxhall Viva being produced in 1964. In recent years the plant has become known as the home of the ever popular Astra.
We were shown the body shop, where body panels are formed and then welded together and the assembly line where the painted body shell becomes a finished car. The body shop is highly automated with extensive use of precision robots. The assembly line illustrated the huge logistic challenge of bringing all of the parts needed to the right place at the right time. Another positive was that most cars seen were left hand drive i.e. for export.
All cars are made to order and (so far as we could see) no two were precisely the same (for example there were 13 different power train options), a long way from Henry Ford “any colour so long as it is black”.
Vauxhall operate a very impressive apprentice scheme and given the level of technology that we saw it is easy to see that they need to attract and retain the very best talent around. The plant is not without challenges given the recent drop in demand for diesel cars, the threat to the Estate Car market (Ellesmere Port’s speciality) from SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles or 4x4s) and the drop off in UK demand. This is to say nothing of the uncertainty surrounding the recent takeover by Peugeot and all of the issues around Brexit. I am confident that an excellent manufacturing site such as Ellesmere Port will have the bright future that it and all it’s employees deserve. A special thanks to our host Ronnie Roberts for an excellent tour.
John Pollard