The British arm of Europe’s No.1 trailer maker has a new managing director, and he comes with a mission. Andreas Schmitz, great-great-grandson of Schmitz Cargobull’s founder, Heinrich, is charged with increasing the company’s UK market share from 16% to 40% by 2010. Key to this challenge is increasing efficiency at the two plants
at Harelaw, Co. Durham, currently at levels which leave the new boss very publicly disappointed.
Schmitz comes to the North-East fresh from running new plants at Panevėžys, Lithuania and Zaragoza, Spain. At a press conference at the London headquarters of the SMMT, which included an impromptu trailer show in the unlikely surroundings of Halkin Street, nestled between Belgrave Square and Hyde Park Corner, the relative efficiencies of Harelaw and Zaragoza were laid bare. While the Spaniards need just 5,000m3 to build 6,000 curtainsiders annually, Harelaw needs 16,900m3 to produce 2,500 curtainsiders and
2,000 reefers. The steps needed to improve substantially on these numbers could be uncomfortable, as lean manufacturing according to Toyota’s Kaizen principles is already in place. However, the mission definitely seems to be to build more trailers rather than to reduce resources.
Part of the Schmitz Cargobull kerbside display was act as a reminder of the level of the advanced technology incorporated in its current product range, including bolted galvanised chassis, semi-monocoque construction, sliding suzy frames and its own-brand axles, complete with innovative cool-running and easy maintenance disc brakes. The opportunity was also taken to announce a new project in conjunction with Wincanton and Carrier in which the first year’s rental income from a donated trailer will be given to the Transaid charity.
