VAUXHALL motor dealers all over the country are being invited to tour the Astra factory at Ellesmere Port to see how the workforce in-builds quality into vehicles.

Vauxhall has just been along a bumpy road, with the future of Luton in doubt, but all that is now in the rear view mirror after a new wage deal for the Millennium.

Now the key word is quality counts as new shape Astras come off the production line ready for August 1 registration.

With Nick Reilly, chairman and MD Vauxhall Motors, as escort I went on a pre-view tour, with out of town trade journalists, of the Wirral factory to see what the dealers will see .

Former plant manager Nick Reilly kept breaking ranks to talk to men and women on the production line.

He takes a personal interest in the latest investment at the Wirral factory of £300m. It is the biggest ever amount spent modernising the plant since Ellesmere Port started making cars on a greenfield site in the early 1960's.

The change in the factory is quite dramatic, even since the last Astra, with the number of robots increased from just under 300 to nearly 500.

And, a huge supply park has grown up next door where major sub assembly modules for the new Astra are built as close as possible to the factory.

The suppliers involved, Delphi Automotive Systems, Plastic Omnium and Mackie Automotive, all making major investments to feed the Vauxhall production. They employ nearly 200 people.

Each new Astra's details are keyed in to their computers as the Supplied in Line Sequence starts. Modular assemblies and components are delivered on line 'just in time' to minimise delivery movements and inventory stockpiling.

Robots bear the brunt of welding, lifting and putting together all the major parts while humans take over more towards the end of the production line to achieve 'zero error' build objectives.

At the end of the tour, dealers will feel really at home in the car showroom created inside the factory. This new competitiveness centre is a place where workers can also understand how the dealers have to sell the car.

Astra has been built so well that it carries a 12 year anti-perforation warranty. "We set ourselves extremely high targets when the new Astra was being conceived. We are certain that our customers will be impressed with the new Astra." says Nick Reilly, who let slip an exclusive.

He is talking with designers about the possibility of some retro styling mod for the Millennium reflecting the distinctive bonnet lines of the 'early days' Vauxhalls. What it will be and on what Vauxhall model he is not saying as the point of the tour was to show how good the new Astra is.

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