Page 22 - TBN-2014-5

Mercedes-Benz Continues To Invest in Pekan Produc
Mercedes-Benz Malaysia (MBM) would continue to invest in its Pekan plant in Pahang. This was announced during the media visit in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the production plant.
According to President and CEO Roland Folger, MBM had invested in access of RM250 million in the Pekan plant since 2004 and the company would continue to invest not just in Pekan, but also in its business as a whole.
The Pekan plant is a 339,000-square metre facility with 1,079 local employees and 2 foreign specialists. It has 3 assembly lines, with 2 dedicated to commercial vehicles and 1 for passenger cars. The output of commercial vehicles per day is between 15 and 20 units: these include Mercedes-Benz such as the Actros 1840, 2640, 2644, 2646, 3340 and 3344, and Mitsubishi Fuso heavy duty trucks FP517D, Fuso medium duty trucks FM657J, FM657N and FN627J as well as Fuso light duty trucks PE71PB, PE83PG, FE85PG and FG83PE. It also produces 3 passenger car models, namely the C-, E- and S-Class, with the S400L Hybrid being the most recent model added to the line.
The plant is well equipped with the latest technology for passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles. It has 55 spot welding guns being used in the light and heavy duty truck body shop, and riveter machines ranging from 17t to 50t as rivets are used widely for the assembly of chassis frames. All commercial vehicles have to go through several checks like side slip and brake force test, chassis alignment on wheels and brake force distribution test, speedometer test, as well as UP07 and STAR diagnosis. Programming and data transfer of the vehicles’ information to the control units are carried out with the UP07 while final testing of the vehicles’ actual values and system functions are carried out with the turning angle and headlamp adjustment facility with computer generated readings to ensure accuracy. It also houses a Mercedes-Benz Vehicle Preparation Centre that is responsible for the final quality check to ensure that all vehicles meet the company’s high standard for quality prior to delivery.
“We have produced more than 34,000 passenger cars and more than 18,700 com- mercial vehicles to date. In 2013 alone, the Mercedes-Benz Malaysia plant produced
From left: Y.B Dato’ Lee Chee Leong, Deputy Minister, Ministry of International Trade and Industry,Roland Folger, President & CEO, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia, and Angel Legarda, Vice President, Pro- duction Plant, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia
a total of 4,083 passenger cars and 2,892 commercial vehicles, and we are looking to maintain this trend,” added Angel Legarda, Vice President Production Plant of MBM.
Apart from the addition of subassemblies and high voltage (HV) facilities to the S-Class line, changes were also made to the com- mercial vehicle line by relocating the body shop and frame assembly. In total, MBM in- vested RM18 million to accommodate these latest developments.
20 truck & bus news › 2014/4
t