Special Report: JLR Engine Manufacturing Centre, a “seminal moment”

THE opening of its new state-of-the-art £500m engine plant near Wolverhampton has been described by Jaguar land Rover as a “seminal moment” for the business – as well it should.

It frees the business of the need to buy-in engines from Ford and means it becomes master of its own destiny so far as the long-term future of the business is concerned.

There were a lot of plaudits flying around for the company at the official opening of the i54 plant – not least because the company had pulled off a major coup by having HM The Queen personally open the new plant.

While the company has a number of Royal Warrants attached to its products, the fact that the reigning monarch was prepared to come along and perform such a ceremony underlines how important the business is to UK plc.

A major propaganda victory over its rivals, the ceremony also reinforces the Britishness of the Jaguar Land Rover brand in the eyes of potential buyers around the world; if The Queen is prepared to endorse the product then how much kudos does that place on the vehicles in the minds of would-be buyers. The simple answer is, a lot.

While a display of pomp and circumstance to equal the launch of an ocean liner – at least in automotive terms – the ceremony also confirms JLR’s position as the UK’s most significant investor in the automotive sector.

Picture Gallery: Inside JLR’s new £500m Engine Manufacturing Centre

But scraping away the veneer of a Royal visit, is there substance beneath all the style.

The simple answer is again, yes.

The Engine Manufacturing Centre, to give the plant its full name, will be home to the ‘Ingenium’ engine family, which will power a new generation of Jaguar Land Rover products designed, engineered and manufactured in the UK. This starts with the 2.0-litre diesel engine in the new Jaguar XE saloon, possibly JLR’s most important vehicle to date.

The £500m facility is the latest demonstration of the company’s commitment to supporting the UK’s burgeoning manufacturing industry. When operating at full capacity, the plant will employ 1,400 people with a further 5,500 jobs created in the supply chain, where production of the engines will help provide a critical mass for inward investment.

JLR says that at the heart of the new plant is a team of people “committed to setting a new global benchmark” in the way engines are manufactured.

Having visited the factory twice in its short history, I can bear testament to this.

The workforce is motivated and passionate about what it does and while the company has been careful about the ambassadors it puts before the media, it is clear that the rank and file are every bit as engaged and looking forward to the future.

The company has also invested heavily in training its workforce, recognising that only by skilling them to the highest level will the business maintain its reputation for quality products.

JLR calls it “future-proofing” but it has been pragmatic enough to recognise that its engineering capabilities need to be underpinned by the best people if the plant is to have a solid foundation and provide the right platform for sustained growth.

While the outlay on its staff has been significant, so has the investment in fitting out the new plant.

Paul Blackman, Production Area Manager, said almost half the total investment in the plant had gone towards fitting out the Machining Hall with the machines that will allow the assembly of the engines to take place.

The area represents the cutting edge of manufacturing technology. It is equipped with 150 state-of-the-art machines working across three production lines. Everything from assembly robots and lasers to drilling and high-pressure wash machines are based there, representing an investment of more than £150m.

The first line is where the aluminium engine block begins its transformation from a simple chunk of metal to the technologically advanced heart of the Ingenium engine. The second line contains the cylinder head, while the third, the crankshaft milling.

Both automated and manual tests take place throughout each line, ensuring that each component is made to the highest standard.

This area represents the precision of technology, driven by human craftsmanship. It is where the very first parts of the engines are made, containing within them the DNA of Ingenium.

The Diesel Assembly Hall is where approximately 245 separate parts come together to form an engine derivative. It is also where the greatest concentration of staff is evident, with 150 people dividend between 17 production zones.

There will be a separate assembly hall for the Ingenium’s petrol variant and as production on this is ramped up then so more people will come on stream.

The aluminium block, cylinder head and crankshaft move through the zones, each one bolstered by additional components and rigorous testing, before finally being joined together.

The engine is then cold tested, an eco-friendly procedure that ensures the highest quality standards are met, before leaving the assembly line.

The logistical challenge of keeping the whole operation flowing is significant but the principles of lean manufacturing mean nothing has been left to chance.

The Engine Manufacturing Centre has 71 suppliers, approximately 30% of which are based in the UK. Hundreds of individual parts will be required when both diesel and petrol divisions are operational. Once inside the facility, the parts will be transported on specially adapted cargo trains, making 133 movements a day, facilitating a huge volume of engines.

The engines will be JLR’s most advanced ever. The Ingenuim family of lightweight, four-cylinder units will utilise the most flexible engine architecture ever produced by JLR, making them ultra efficient, powerful and capable of producing up to 300Nm of torque while emitting as little as 99g/km of CO2.

The use of lightweight aluminium means the engines weigh as much as 80kg less than equivalent of today’s engines.

Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart, Jaguar Land Rover Group Engineering Director, said: “Customers are increasingly demanding cleaner running, more efficient vehicles that maintain or even enhance performance attributes. Our Ingenium engines deliver this to a new level.”

Top 10 details about the Engine Manufacturing Centre:

•    £500m investment
•    100,000m2 in size – the equivalent of 14 football pitches
•    6,500m3 of topsoil excavated from the site
•    4,400 tonnes of hot-rolled steel used in the construction
•    32.1 miles of trenching for ducts and drainage
•    21,000 photovoltaic panels on the roof, providing the same amount of energy required to power 1,600 homes
•    £650,000 – the average cost of one of the high-tech machines in the Machining Hall
•    0.003 millimetres – the detailing on a crankshaft is polished to be less than the width of a strand of human hair
•    245 – approximate number of parts in each engine derivative
•    90 seconds – time taken to perform a cold test on a single engine

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