The Eastern Cape is the home of Isuzu Trucks, and journalists visiting the company’s Kempston Road Plant in Port Elizabeth recently were shown how, following a facelift, the plant has both increased production and boosted morale amongst employees.

The assembly plant is ideally situated as Isuzu Trucks’ business focus includes the South African Development Community (SADC) region, speciafically the Sub-Saharan regions of Africa.

Craig Uren, Isuzu Truck South Africa Chief Operations Officer (COO) says, “With our current plant location we have access to a port, which makes transporting vehicles to the regions which we view as key growth nodes much easier.”

“Our plant has undergone some radical changes in line with our global leadership philosophies, which are intrinsic to not only our brand but our heritage, too. One philosophy that has been used successfully in the plant in establishing optimal productivity is the use of Kaizen principles, which have increased the capacity of our workforce. The Truck plant has undergone further changes since 2013 and Isuzu Trucks South Africa has taken responsibility for the Truck assembly operation at Kempston Road.”

While productivity has been optimised, the labour force has not been affected and no loss of employment has occurred.
Uren adds, “What we have managed to achieve at the plant is decrease wasted time by increasing optimal working conditions, which benefits our employees. The plant currently employs 110 people, and with outputs increasing, this number is set to expand in the future.”

“Our presence additionally enhances the local economy by employing people from the Eastern Cape; this trickle down economic effect supplements the local economy by creating more business and job opportunities in the Eastern Cape Region.”

Uren concludes, “As a business, Isuzu Truck contributes to the downstream activities within the economy as well as the local economy, which forms a large base of our workforce at the plant. This means that although Isuzu Trucks may be in the vehicle industry, we contribute greatly to society, i.e. the main mode of transport in South Africa is road freight, and by ensuring that companies that purchase our vehicles are sustainable we ensure that people are employed throughout the supply chain, ranging from drivers to merchandisers, store controllers, distributors, etc.”

The Kempston Road plant is over 44,000m² and adheres to ISO standards ISO9001 and ISO14000; it assembles the N, F and FX series trucks and also boasts an impressive safety record.

Isuzu Trucks has its roots in Japan and dates back to the early 1900s. The Kempston Road plant opened in 1929 and currently has an output of 4,500 vehicles per annum, producing 20 units per day.