Freight volumes driven by the Volkswagen South Africa manufacturing plant in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape have been secured by the plant receiving recognition as the top manufacturing plant in the global Volkswagen production network in 2015.
VWSA achieved the highest index score of 113.2% amongst the 13 Volkswagen plants around the world.
This was the first time that Uitenhage has been rated as the top manufacturing plant since the Beetle production started in August 1951, according to Thomas Schaefer, chairman and managing director of Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA).
The 13 global Volkswagen production plants are all measured on the same key performance indicators such as production volumes, production quality, cost per unit, units produced per employee, health and safety incidents and the factory's improvements in reducing its carbon footprint.
Of the 120 000 Polos and Polo Vivos produced in 2015, over 66 000 Polos were exported to predominantly right hand drive markets such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and Ireland.
In addition, 113 000 engines were also manufactured in the Uitenhage plant. Of these 81 000 were exported to markets such as India, China and Mexico.
“This exciting news will bolster our shareholders' confidence in our company as we have commenced with our R4.5-billion investment plans for new products announced last year,” says Schaefer.
