MAN Automotive South Africa’s Pinetown assembly plant is now handling end-of-line pre-delivery inspection checks, which are normally done at its dealers around the country.
The expanded role for the plant came into effect on 1 April and is one of several key changes the company is making to its operations to cater for increased demand over the past two years. MAN’s expansion of assembly operations has grown by approximately 50 percent since 2016.
The company believes the Pinetown upgrade will allow it to offer “ready-to-go” solutions, from a centralised point – enabling improved consistency in quality and uniformity of standards.
“Having a central point also enables MAN customers to make collections of their transport solutions from the assembly plant, in alignment with MAN globally. MAN’s ProfiDrive driver training will also be provided as a standard service to these customers,” said Markus Geyer, MD MAN Automotive South Africa.
An enabler to this move is the use of the MAN branch facility adjacent to the Pinetown plant. In support of the network optimisation strategy, which is taking place simultaneously, there will be no normal MAN retail operations from this site after April 1.
“We are confident that the remaining six dealers within KwaZulu-Natal will continue to offer customers a variety of options to support their operations without any compromise to service levels.”
Geyer said the company would also open a wholly owned operation in Port Elizabeth. “Previously operated as a private capital location, MAN decided that it was the right time to reinforce its footprint by setting up this wholly owned location.”