From Fleet Equipment magazine.
Navistar International Corp. recently joined the city of San Antonio, Bexar County and the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation (SAEDF) in a virtual groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the construction of Navistar’s new manufacturing facility in San Antonio.
The facility will include a general assembly line, body shop, paint shop and logistics center, as well as a truck specialty center, to make aftermarket modifications on-site.
Located near Interstate 35, off U.S. Highway 281 and the frontage road connecting to Mitchell Lake Trailhead, the new 900,000-square-foot plant will have the capacity to produce Class 6-8 vehicles. Vehicle production at the facility is scheduled to begin early 2022, bringing more than 600 jobs to the San Antonio area, Navistar said.
The more than $250 million investment in Texas is a key component to the company’s “Navistar 4.0” growth strategy, the company says. The location of the San Antonio plant allows for significant logistics improvements and a consolidation of the company’s supply base and the new facility will also incorporate digital factory, connected machinery, robust lean manufacturing processes and cloud analytics.
“We are excited to launch Manufacturing 4.0 concepts at our new facility, as these advancements will reduce manufacturing complexity and increase quality,” said Persio Lisboa, president and chief executive officer at Navistar. “Sharing these new industrial advances and Manufacturing 4.0 concepts with our existing plants is an additional benefit we anticipate from our experience with this new facility.”
