Ford catches the Cube
Page 20
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• A year ago Ford of Europe let slip that it was considering moving the distribution of car and light van components between its factories in the UK and the Continent, from rail to road. After spending $22 million (£14.7 million) on new equipment, including over 500 'Super Cube' trailers, additional tractive units and a Ro-Ro dock at its Dagenham plant, that switch is now taking place.
Ford's changeover, has been spurred by the ever-increasing demand for greater efficiency. Under the old system, ISO container loads of components were shipped by rail back and forth between the UK and the Continent, via Harwich and Zeebrugge. The process was relatively slow and, more important, inflexible — if a container was not ready in time it missed the train.
By using road distribution, however, Ford has now been able to cut its average delivery time from the UK to its Cologne plant from four days by rail, to two and a half days by trailer.
Increased flexibility
This increases flexibility and significantly reduces the levels of stock, or inventory, that is spread out between Ford's assembly and manufacturing plants.
From now on, all Ford light vehicle components previously carried by rail in ISO containers, either in the UK, or on the Continent will be distributed by road.
The rail-to-road switch will give Ford an annual saving in reduced inventory of about $9 million (£6 million), and, while it is being reticent on exactly where it is saving money, it seems likely that there are further savings to be had, with possible reductions of between $4 and $5 million (£2.7-3.3 million) in lower haulage transhipment costs.
The Super Cube trailers will run between Ford's UK factories at Leamington Spa, Halewood, Bridgend, Dagenham and Southampton, and its continental plants at Cologne and Saarlouis in Germany and Genk in Belgium. The trailers will be pulled by Ford's own tractive units — extra vehicles have been bought for the purpose — and by haulage contractors.
As part of the investment in road distribution, Ford of Britain has also built a new Ro-Ro dock at its Dagenham site on the Thames, using its existing jetty. The Super Cube trailers bound for the Continent will be consolidated there and shipped to Zeebrugge using a chartered ferry.
In addition to the capital spent on trailers, and new handling facilities, Ford has spent extra money on computers to track the trailer movements which amount to around 20,000 per annum. Each trailer will cover around 50,000Iun annually.
At the heart of the project is the massive, £8.5 million order for 520 stepframe tri-axle curtainsided Super Cube trailers, which probably represents the biggest single trailer order placed in the industry over the last 10 years.
This juicy plum has been won by York Trailer Company, which has already completed over half of the order — placed jointly between Ford of Britain and Ford Werke Germany, with both companies receiving 260 Super Cubes each.
York's involvement in the project began at the beginning of 1986, when it was approached by Ford to produce two prototype trailers for evaluation. These were completed last summer, with the main order following in January this year.
Despite its long running involvement, York still had to compete against other trailer builders in the final tender, including continental manufacturers such as Schmidt, Van Hool, Pacton and Neetam, and with its UK archrival Crane Fruehauf.
Delivery, at a rate of 20 a week, started in April, and is scheduled to finish in October. York has already invested 250,000 in development costs.
The Super Cube trailers are fairly unusual; a 3 metre loading height is necessary to handle multiple pallets of components either 1 or 1.5 metre in height, but the overall height of the trailer has to be within the European limit of 4 metres.
To meet these demanding requirements, the trailers are fitted with raising roofs, which help prevent loading damage. As conventional cable and winding systems are prone to failure, York has fitted an airoperated unit to power the cable. The air spring uses the vehicle's compressed air supply, and the roof is raised by 356mm by simply turning a stop cock lever through 900.
York Trailer is hoping to develop its lifting roof design even further to allow trailers to run below 4.2m high at 38 tonnes, and above 4.2m at 32 tonnes.
The commercial advantages for mixed vehicle fleet operators are obvious, and York is already building a raising roof version of its Freepost curtainsider.
High density loads
To cope with high density loads, each Super Cube has heavy duty cross members at 300mm centres and a 48mm deep hardwood/ply floor. A small underrun bumper and upswept rear chassis members provide maximum loading clearance for Ro-Ro operations.
As Ford specified air suspension on all its Super Cube trailers, York has fitted a specially-developed German SAF tri-axle bogie, worth £3,200 per trailer.
The Super Cube order gives another boost to York Trailer, which is already in a bullish mood, with managing director Jim Davies predicting that by the end of 1987 it will have built between 2,900-3,000 trailers, giving it a 30% share of the UK trailer market.
Which ever way the final figure works out, Davies claims it will "certainly be more than anybody else." All York's trailer assembly plants are currently running at full capacity and the company is predicting increased profits and turnover during 1987/88.
York expects the current Super Cube order to be only a start "as contractors which currently run for Ford plug into the Super Cube movement with their own interchangeable equipment."
York's enthusiasm, however, is unlikely to be echoed by British Rail which has suffered yet another blow to its freight business following Ford's decision to switch to road. During the last 12 months it has lost distribution business believed to be worth more than £15 million a year.