14/02/08
Integration of McCormick tractor production into the ARGO Group’s
headquarters manufacturing and assembly plant in Italy has been
completed as part of a €10 million (£7.5 million) investment
in new and upgraded production facilities.
One of McCormick's MC series tractors nears the end of the assembly
line at the ARGO Group's headquarters factory at Fabbrico, northern
Italy.
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The McCormick CX and MC tractors previously built in Doncaster
now share an existing ‘four-cylinder’ assembly line
with similar size models in ARGO’s Landini range, while the
McCormick MC Power6, MTX and XTX tractors are built on an extensively
upgraded line dedicated to six-cylinder engined models from both
ranges.
“Integrating production of these tractors in a very flexible
mixed-product assembly process will have significant cost-efficiency
advantages,” points out Ray Spinks, newly-appointed head
of ARGO Group operations in Britain. “In addition, I believe
the McCormick products will benefit from being assembled at the
heart of the group’s expanding R&D and engineering facilities.”
Mr Spinks acknowledges that the run-down of production at McCormick’s
Doncaster plant, which built its final tractor in December last
year, has had an impact on sales and deliveries.
“It introduced some uncertainties and resulted in product
shortages, particularly for six-cylinder tractors towards the end
of the year, when getting the new assembly line up to speed took
longer than expected,” he explains. “But that’s
behind us now; the new line for the bigger tractors is fully operational,
output is steadily increasing as the workforce gets used to the
model mix and we’re looking forward to an improvement in
lead times and deliveries as spring approaches.”
Transferring production of McCormick’s ‘Doncaster’ tractors
to the ARGO plant at Fabbrico in northern Italy has been a major
exercise, which first involved moving assembly of the group’s
specialist orchard and vineyard tractors to a new €2 million
(£1.5 million) facility at Luzzara, approximately 20km away.
“We then needed a new paint shop to handle the McCormick
tractors’ larger chassis and had to create more space on
the assembly floor, which involved building a new production warehouse,” explains
Fabbrico production manager Roberto Zamboni. “We also needed
larger quality-control and final inspection areas and had to organise
component sourcing and storage. Then, of course, we had to train
our workforce to build the McCormick tractors to the same high
quality standards as our Landini products.”
In addition to the €5 million (£3.75 million) spent
at Fabbrico, a further €1 million (£0.75 million) was
spent upgrading the San Martino factory making sub-100hp utility
tractors. €2 million (£1.5 million) was spent doubling
capacity at the group’s dedicated cab manufacturing facility.
“We like to build as much of our tractors as possible to
control quality,” emphasises Mr Zamboni. “With only
a few exceptions, we make all the transmissions, rear axles, front
axles and cabs in our own factories.”
Future plans for the Fabbrico factory include relocating the design,
engineering and R&D departments to an all-new facility to accommodate
the extra engineers and other staff taken on to help develop the
McCormick range.
In the meantime, the assembly line workers at the headquarters
plant are producing 60hp to 200hp tractors at a rate of 56 per
day, with some more capacity still to come.
“That will be welcome news to our patient customers and
dealers eager for deliveries,” says Ray Spinks. “After
all the uncertainty, it’s good to see the McCormick range
settled into its new home.”
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