On June 13th, the ZF Foxconn Chassis Modules plant for chassis system assembly in Solihull celebrates its 20th anniversary. Located in the heart of UK automotive industry, the Solihull facility has been a vital part of the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) supply chain since its foundation. To this day, the plant’s overall output marks more than 10 million chassis modules manufactured for the British premium automotive brand, equipping the top tier models such as Land Rover Discovery, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.
“I am extremely proud of our team’s passion and performance”, says Adrian Chell, Solihull Plant Director. “Over the past 20 years, we have executed a continuous development process here at the site, which endows our chassis module assembly with the highest levels of quality and adaptability to all customer requirements. Therefore, I would also like to thank our partner JLR for the close and trusting cooperation, without which we would not have been able to set these new industry standards over two decades.”
Eike Dorff, CEO from ZF Foxconn Chassis Modules adds:
“The Solihull Plant’s 20-year success story marks a special milestone for our global company. I appreciate our colleague’s work here very much because we have been able to successfully transfer their immense expertise from the Midlands to many more of our international plants. You prove, that consistent performance and customer proximity are the key to our successful future, at least for the next 20 years!”
Distinguished partnership
The long-standing partnership began with a successful nomination by JLR in 2001 for the production of Land Rover Discovery (L319) and Range Rover (L320) chassis modules. Being erected only six miles away from the customer’s assembly plant, ZF Foxconn Chassis Modules, is the sole supplier of front and rear corner modules for JLR company since 2004. Stemming from the former ZF Group’s axle modules product line, ZF Foxconn Chassis Modules is now operating the Solihull plant as a stand-alone company aside 24 other locations globally.
20 years of best practice manufacturing
For two decades, the Solihull teams have been flawlessly delivering high-quality components out of the 4,000-square-metre factory. Complying with the global ZF standards for assembly line configuration, the plant houses a mixture of manual and automated assembly stations. The tailor-made production process is designed for maximum flexibility to cope with any changes in customer demands. Consistent quality control checks at each successive stage employ a total of 61 Cameras and 71 individual inspections to guarantee a near faultless level of product quality and delivery. The highly sophisticated just-in-sequence (JIS) standard ensures a hand-over within a time frame of only six hours after specific order from the OEM customer. Quality and reliability characterize not only the production of the modules but the plant’s logistics network. Fully optimized logistics processes ensure on time collection of the raw materials from the supplier network stretching from the UK to Southern Europe.
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