PERSONALITY
The UD plant is located in Samutprakarn outside Bangkok.
QUALITY SCHEMES
Some readers may be interested to learn that the UD Trucks Croner range which will be available in Australia over the next few months is actually manufactured at a modern plant located at Samutprakarn just outside of Bangkok in Thailand. The automotive industry in Thailand manufactures more than two million vehicles each year, as wide ranging as UD Croner and Quester trucks and Volvo buses, and pick-up trucks such as the Ford Rangers and Toyota HiLux utes which are currently so popular in Australia.
H
elen Savmyr has a background in chemical engineering. She joined the Volvo Group in 2000 and has been in charge of the Thai-Swedish Assembly (TSA) operation for the past
three years. In what was once a Volvo and then Ford passenger vehicle plant, Helen oversees a complex operation which involves multiple checking points, and an adherence to high quality standards which, for example, sees
UD’s Thailand facility employs 83 staff. 64
febr u a r y 2020
UD vehicles receiving the same paint procedures as the Volvo units, and every completed vehicle being dyno tested and laser wheel aligned prior to despatch. PM: Why does Volvo build many of its UD trucks in Thailand? HS: I believe that the main reason that Thailand was sought out by the Japanese UD management was the very good quality and good competence linked to the Thai automotive industry. I think the adherence to quality schemes is better in Thailand. It’s quite easy to get good quality here. The component supply chain is good here due to there being so many manufacturers. PM: Does the vehicle build quality here have to be at least equal to that in Japan? HS: It has to be comparable for sure. We don’t produce Croner in Japan, only
