The Fiat factory rises in the Northeast with the potential to double production

Still building machines populate the landscape. Among trucks, backhoes and bulldozers, they move and excavate the ground in preparing the ground for the paving of the soil or the installation of new structures. The buildings, however, are erected and the industrial equipment, mostly installed. And in them, a reasonable number of employees, more than 900 people, already working on pre-production phase, call when testing facilities, tune up working procedures and are mounted prototypes of cars that will be produced on site.
Three years after being started, with investments of r $ 7 billion, the works of the industrial park of Fiat in Goiana, in the forest zone in the North of Pernambuco, are finally in the home stretch for the inauguration in the first quarter of 2015, probably in March.
In the Conference Room of a building that has served provisionally as their administrative headquarters, while the definitive offices are not ready, Stefan Ketter-scaled by Executive global head of the Italian group, Sergio Marchionne, to command the spot to build the largest project of Fiat in years-draws attention to the design of the factory, the "Star layout" production lines, the same as the illustration above.
In it, the four main sectors of a large car factory-stamping, welding, painting and Assembly-communicate by a central structure that serves as the basis for the control of production: the communication center (Media Center), as named in English, the company. In addition to being the interconnection point wherever he goes, for all crawlers suspended factory production, this building is the finish line of the cars produced at the site, where the cars are subjected to quality control of the group.
The compact architecture brings two big advantages for the company. The first is linked to management, since, to shorten distances between command and factory floor, the automaker gains agility to solve eventual problems faster and with greater proximity to what happens in the production lines. "Within two minutes, the Manager can monitor the physical results," says Ketter to receive the value in the new factory.
The second benefit involves potential of the enterprise. Fiat has preserved for possible future expansion needs spaces of the factory, which begins with a capacity to produce 250 thousand cars per year, but can double in size if the market demand. Areas such as stamping and painting can, for example, be expanded from the sidelines. That is, if it took nearly four decades to build its second plant in the country, Fiat, for a long time, won't have to worry about getting another place to enlarge the production to the Brazilian market.
The moment the market is difficult, with fall approaching 10% in the consumption of vehicles in the country. But still bet on growing Ketter long-term. It also says that the industry crisis at a time when Fiat is close to start operations in Goiana didn't get the company completely by surprise. "We consider several scenarios [before the decision to invest]. We all know the cycles of this industry, "he says.
The way it is today, the factory of Goiana, touted as the most modern of the group in the world, has the flexibility to produce simultaneously up to four distinct models. So far, the only confirmed that Fiat will set up three of them, starting with the Renegade, Jeep, Chrysler controlled brand. For the time being, is the only one of the models with name revealed by the company, but the automaker does not close the possibility to produce other brands.
Since the first year of operation, the production will be destined to both the domestic market and for exports to neighboring markets in Latin America. If the exchange rate and production costs in Brazil helping, the jeeps produced in Pernambuco can also land in developed markets such as the United States. "Our product will be ready to meet the demands of these markets," said Ketter, who is Vice Chairman of Fiat manufacturing world since 2008.
The works are intense so that all works of automotive pole of Pernambuco to be completed by the end of the year, especially in the suppliers, which must be the last one to be ready. The goal is to celebrate the inauguration until March, in a ceremony full of symbolism. It will be the first factory opened by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the company resulting from the merger between Italian and American automakers that is about to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. It will also be the first car manufacturer to be inaugurated by the Government candidate in next month's elections-inside, in fact, a number of automakers that open the doors in the next two years.
On top of that, the event will also mark the return of the Jeep to Brazil after a period of 32 years, since, between the years 50 and early 80, the legendary Jeep Willys was produced in the country, first by the now defunct Willys Overland and later by Ford.
In this case, a coincidence that unites the history of Jeep in Brazil with the venture of Fiat in Pernambuco. In addition to a factory on ABC, the Willys was, from 1966, mounted in Pernambuco, on a Ford production line in Jaboatão dos Guararapes. In 2010, when I was producing only auto parts, the factory was bought by Fiat and became the embryo of a larger project of the Italian manufacturer in the Northeast.
The Gigantism of the Fiat industrial park is impressive. On a plot of almost 12 million square meters, before dominated by reeds, 260 thousand square meters are occupied by the factory cars and an area a little larger, to 270 thousand square meters, houses systemists Park, where 16 suppliers settled in twelve warehouses to supply automotive components considered strategic, such as banks, axles and chassis. There is also a placeholder for an engine plant, a project of r $ 500 million already announced by the company. But, in this case, the works have not started and the thrusters will be initially produced in Fiat's factory in Campo Largo, Paraná.
In total, about 4 000 people of 325 construction companies working in construction. Until mid-2016, when the complex is fully operational, approximately 10 thousand workers will circulate it among employees of Fiat (more than 3 000), suppliers (4 mil) and third party service providers (other 3 thousand employees).
Your part in this contingent, Fiat already hired 938 people, all properly attire in the uniform of the Jeep. More than 200 people must unite to that group until the start of production. After going through the Senai industrial training courses, the final training of such personnel is done on a replica of the production lines installed in the own factory.