Renault supplier improves efficiency. (WIP).

The turnaround at Nissan is becoming well known, as is the leadership of that company by Carlos Ghosn. But what isn't always kept in mind is that the transformation was essentially initiated by the French auto manufacturer, Renault. As David Magee writes in Turnaround: How Carlos Ghosn Saved Nissan: Nissan got many things From Renault when the alliance was signed, like Ghosn and a check For $5.4 billion." Clearly, Renault is a company that knows how to get things done right.

Which leads us to Averiro, Portugal, site of a manufacturing Facility of C.A.C.I.A., SA, which was initially a supplier to Renault, but now supplies Nissan, as well. Specifically, the firm is responsible For the production of five- and six-speed transmissions that are used in the Nissan Primera and the Renault Megane. To keep up with its efficient customer, in 2000 the management at C.A.C.I.A. undertook a realignment of its production operations. Plant director Phillippe Lechevalier concentrated on enhancing the Facility's metalcutting manufacturing operations. The firm worked with DECKEL MAHO Geretsried GmbH, which not only supplied metalcutting equipment, but also helped create production modules.

For example, among the equipment deployed are three production modules, each of which uses 2 DMC 63 H horizontal machining centers. These machines Feature a 3,149-ipm rapid traverse, 1-g acceleration, high-speed spindles, and Siemens CNC controls. Because these three machining modules have proven to be efficient in the production of some 6,000 manual transmissions per week, and because Lechevalier was impressed with the help provided by the DECKEL MAHO personnel ["Our visits to the German supplier plants have shown us a lot of things in production and logistics that are also state-of-the-art in the automotive industry. As a result, the German engineers were correspondingly open and competent in understanding our machinery and process requirements, which considerably accelerated the decision-making procedure and, in particular, the installation and commissioning phases."], there are now more than the original 36 machines at C.A.C.I.A., which also produces products including oil pumps, flywheels, and exhaust ma nifolds. Specifically, there are 10 more DMC 63 H's, three smaller DMC 50 H machining centers [which are used in the production of oil pumps], CTX 400 series universal lathes and TWIN 32 production lathes [For producing camshafts), and several DMC 63V and DMC 103 V vertical machining centers.