Technology company Continental has announced the expansion of its Romanian site in Timisoara, terming it a ‘Mega’ factory. Notably, this will be the third expansion for the plant since 2006.
With an investment of around €40 million, the production area will grow to 18,000 square metres, a 60% increase in the space from the current 7,000 square metres.
A press release from the company noted that after a construction time of less than a year, the expanded mega factory was opened in November and will produce innovative User Experience solutions such as displays at the enlarged site.
With the expansion, Continental bundles production capacities and competencies at a selected central location.
The company plans to continue to drive forward the paradigm shift in the production of automotive user experience technologies. It creates great economic and technological advantages through this mega factory strategy, especially the extremely complex manufacturing of large display solutions such as C-Shape, L-Shape or Pillar-to-Pillar Displays.
Thomas Ebenhöch, Vice President Operations- User Experience Business Area, Continental, said, “The demand for integrated display solutions is growing enormously. With this plant extension and our mega factory strategy, we strengthen our global manufacturing footprint to further enhance our capabilities to develop solutions for a digital future.”
Notably, the company has recently won additional major orders worth more than €2 billion from global vehicle manufacturers for its large display solutions, bringing the awarded lifetime sales for Continental display solutions with SOP after 2022 to over €7 billion.
Philipp von Hirschheydt, Head- User Experience Business Area, Continental, said, “What used to be the horsepower under the hood is now the user experience.”
The way the occupants interact with the vehicle, connect, communicate, relax, and are informed or entertained, is becoming the key criterion in the purchase decision. “In order to satisfy our customer’s growing demand, we need to aim for the highest possible digitalisation, standardisation and automatisation – and that is exactly what we are doing with our new mega factory in Timisoara,” he said.
The Continental Automotive plant in Timisoara has been a pioneer in digitally connected production technologies for many years and is considered a benchmark factory for Industry 4.0.
By focusing on people, standardisation, automation and digitalisation, the expanded plant in Timisoara covers all the crucial topics of future mobility and future-proofs the technology company’s display production worldwide, the release said.
Interestingly, the electronic components factory in Timisoara produces more than 17 million products annually. These include airbag control units, electronic parking brakes, control units for air suspension, damping and vertical stabilisation, power steering control units, display solutions, and head-up displays.
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