OREANDA-NEWS.  September 12, 2014. Mercedes-Benz is realigning its global passenger cars manufacturing activities and is strengthening its German passenger cars locations with investments worth billions of euros.

“We want to continue to grow and will significantly increase our production capacities in the coming years. At the same time we want to permanently and sustainably strengthen our competitiveness with a high-performance organization,” said Markus Schafer, Member of the Divisional Board of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Production and Supply Chain Management, during a media event at the Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen plant. This year alone, Mercedes-Benz is managing 18 vehicle ramp-ups at eight locations worldwide, among them the start of production of the new C-Class sedan on four continents. Until 2020, Mercedes-Benz will additionally introduce 12 models which do not have a predecessor.

As well as stepping up its international activities, Mercedes-Benz is strengthening it German plants with investments of more than three billion euros this year. At the Sindelfingen plant, more than one billion euros are invested primarily for future products. Another billion euros go to the Unterturkheim core plant, amongst others for the expansion of engine production. The Bremen plant's capacities will be increased with around 750 million euros. Further investment also goes to the Rastatt compact car plant, where the fully-electric B-Class electric drive has been seamlessly integrated into series production.

The new manufacturing organization Mercedes-Benz Operations (MO) is based on global production networks and centralized responsibility for logistics and quality. “Under our previous production structure, the individual plants operated largely autonomously. Now, manufacturing will be organized according to product architectures, independent of individual locations,” explained Schafer.

These product architectures comprise the rear-wheel drive architecture (MRA), the front-wheel-drive architecture (MFA), the architectures for SUVs (MHA) and sports cars (MSA) as well as the powertrain architecture (MPA).

The MRA production network (S-, E-, C-Class) is led by Andreas Kellermann, who was previously head of the Bremen plant. Michael Gobel is now in charge of global compact car production (A-, B-Class, CLA, GLA and in the future CLA Shooting brake), having previously overseen roadster production in Bremen. Production of SUVs (M-, R-, GL-, and G-Class) and sports cars (SL, SLK) is the responsibility of Jason Hoff, who also retains his existing role as President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. plant in Tuscaloosa/Alabama (MBUSI). Peter Schabert, who has been responsible for global powertrain production since 2010, will continue in this position unchanged.

Each vehicle and powertrain architecture will draw on a system of modules and components. The new C-Class is the first model series to be built entirely in accordance with this principle. The C-Class is Mercedes-Benz's highest-volume model series and went into production on four continents within just six months earlier this year: Bremen came first in February, followed by the East London plant (South Africa) in May, the Tuscaloosa plant (USA) in June, and the BBAC plant in Beijing (China) in July.