1. What’s a typical workday in your current role?

I start every working day with a prayer, and then proceed to checking my emails from my colleagues abroad. Due to the time difference, it is imperative that I respond timeously and attend to any issues at hand.

2. What motivates you to get up every day?

Working with passionate and solution-driven people excites me. I also believe that I have the most exciting job within the company, which includes among other important things, maintaining the reputation of the company through ensuring business continuity as well as production of quality trucks for the Southern Africa region.

3. The UD Trucks Manufacturing Plant in Rosslyn, Pretoria boasts a rich history in South Africa, take us through the journey and how it has evolved over the years?

Yes, in South Africa, UD Trucks boasts an impressive history that spans over six decades and has been unswerving on its commitment of manufacturing trucks and buses that the world needs today. In the intervening years, the company has seen several acquisitions, from the days of Nissan Diesel to Volvo Group. This is followed by the recent acquisition by the Isuzu Group in 2021.

In 2012, we had the opportunity to launch models like the Quester, which to date, continue to be one of the dominating trucks in the heavy-duty segment. The brand also made bold moves ahead of local legislation with the launch of its Quon, Quester and Croner Euro 5 range. UD Trucks was one of the first heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers to bring Euro 5 configuration into local production in South Africa in 2019 as well as keeping Euro 3 product ranges on Kuzer, Croner and Quester to cover all market requirements. Over the years, the plant has seen some improvements on its processes through the UD Production System (UDPS), which resulted in the plant being rated as a “Silver Plant” and ISO certified (ISO 9001 and 14001). Looking ahead, UD Trucks continues to evolve bringing a wealth of technological innovations such as electrical vehicles (EVs) and autonomous vehicles.

4. The plant is renowned for producing a wide range of diverse and quality products, elaborate on the current product line-up?

The Rosslyn plant in South Africa is the only factory within UD Trucks globally that assembles all three main products being the Quon, Quester and Croner. With this range UD is the strongest Japanese manufacturer in heavy-duty trucks besides a strong legacy in the medium duty. In 2023, we have assembled 50% Quester and Quon units and 50% Croner and Kuzer.

5. Can you share insights on how many trucks have been assembled from the Rosslyn plant to date?

With the support of the local engineering team, the plant introduced some technical changes, product upgrades and new model introductions from a bill of material. We also embarked on having the plant ISO certified since 2004. We did an estimate of production based on retail sales, with an average stock holding both at wholesale and retail level added thus around 66700 units were produced at the time.

Currently we produce over 50 variants to meet the different needs of customers in different segments and we average 3000 assembled vehicles every year in the 22 years of operation in the current facility.

6. How has UD Trucks managed to achieve manufacturing excellence in a competitive environment to meet the growing demands of customers?

In the plant we live by our pledge “Performance with pride” which is made up of the following pillars:
Everyone: is involved and engaged while acknowledging diversity.
Empowered: all employees have necessary tools and education to perform their duties.
Energized: our employees are rewarded and recognized for going the extra mile which brings energy to the team.

We collaborate with the sales team to prioritize assembly of high demand and customer orders. The Pretoria Plant outlined its ambition of being the No.1 commercial vehicle assembly plant in South Africa by going back to our Japanese roots and implementing a Kaizen, Continuous Improvement Program. The Kaizen program ensures that we do the basics right while we build a strong operational foundation which focuses on Safety, Quality, Gemba design and Logistic flow improvement. Quality Carnival activities are aimed at improving the quality mind-set with a slogan “Zero defect mind-set” and “Don’t create defects or pass on defects to next operation”.

7. What gaps have you observed in terms of endorsing locally produced products?

As a brand guided by its Better Life purpose for the planet, growth, and people, we need to be consistent in assembling high quality products that offer solutions for the local market such as improved safety features i.e. Driver assist, electronic stability control (ESC). Continue promoting the Euro 5 message locally to support our customers with environmentally friendly vehicles that offer lower emissions, improved fuel efficiency, and ultimately reduced Total Cost of Ownership.

8. What manufacturing technologies are next on the horizon, and what impact are these expected to have in the industry?

I had the privilege of attending the 2023 Japan Motor Show, where Isuzu and UD Trucks jointly shared a stand and the theme was centred around Electrification, Connectivity and Autonomous. These two industry giants used this platform to showcase new innovations to the public, which included developments such autonomous trucks which can be self-driven without the driver’s intervention, adaptive steering wheel system where a driver can drive on rough roads without feeling the impact from the steering wheel. There was also a strong focus on Electric Vehicles (EV’s). These innovations are certainly the future technologies that will influence the future of the transport industry.

9. How do you see the future of the UD Trucks plant in five years?

I see the Rosslyn plant being regarded as one of the world-class plants in the automotive industry, where we are trusted in assembling a range of Heavy-duty trucks. We will work through the Kaizen Program to produce automated solutions that will secure increased productivity while maintaining leading quality standards going forward.