[ad_1]
Yet the manufacture of road cars under the famous name has certainly had its share of back and forth. If he had lived, McLaren would probably have built M6GT coupes in the early 1970s, crossing the road between race car and race car. But these have never done it. Two decades later, under the leadership of Ron Dennis, McLaren Cars created Gordon Murray's legendary series of 106 F1 hypercars. Others were expected, but the McLaren marketing people of the time were simply lacking billionaires.
McLaren Cars became dormant but the wider group retained its manufacturing car (and kept its engine of Formula 1 of the time, Mercedes, tolerably happy) by building the car officially known as the Mercedes-McLaren SLR in Woking between 2003 and 2008 – until Dennis's insatiable ambition to make his own road cars finally kiboshed two offers.
At the end of the decade, Woking's turbocharged two-seater McLaren V8 surfaced and in 2011, the very first MP4-12C models reached customers. The early cars were assaulted by electronic and infotainment gremlins – quickly driven out by a manufacturing guru soon entering management, Mike Flewitt – but the essential car was good enough to carry the early comparison with the Ferrari 458 Italia , the darling of the road testers time. In the next six years, following the announcement of a three – tier structure (Sports, Super and Ultimate Series), McLaren has already launched nine models and derivatives and is promising twelve more. here 2022, of which more than half will be hybrid. At least one – the successor of Ultimate Series to the powerful P1 supercar – will be purely electric.
Yet a fascinating series of unknowns surrounds McLaren's achievements; Billion pounds questions, if you will. How to start a business in one of the most fault-prone industrial manufacturing areas and get it glued? How has the company made such progress so quickly? How do you get launch customers to trust you, then find follow-up customers to support you through the years. What about talent, money, ideas, facilities: where does all this come from? The simple answer seems to be that you think very deeply and plan very well. We spent a day of deep diving in Woking, discussing the specifics with key members of McLaren's multi-talented executive group …
Assembling Building Blocks:
Alan Foster In 2005, McLaren joined McLaren instead of going to Russia to establish another mass plant, the one he had set up or ran for most of his life professional.
He remembers The first day they started talking about getting the company from a two day SLR operation to the 20 day production scale required for a profitable future for all McLarens: "Okay, smart hoofs," they said. We manufacture as many cars as we want. I immediately made it clear that our paint shop would never cope with the new volume and that we needed a lot more production space.
"Then we had to make some key decisions about which type of manufacturing system to focus on." In mass production, you often sacrifice technology to chase numbers, but for a new McLaren technology was to be king
We have a clear technological bias towards F1, and a bunch of engineers who want it, so our construction process had to be as flexible as we could, to give Customers know the best and the best, and it works.Do you know that in almost eight years of production, I doubt that we have made the same car twice. "
Foster was convinced that McLaren would work better with a large number of key suppliers supplying components and subsystems just in time.The priorities, he said, were to maintain the carbon fiber F1 heritage, and to maintain 100% control over the co nception, 100% control of the assembly. The idea of Ricardo, a supplier, engine construction was good. "Engine manufacturing is not that difficult," Foster says. "The hardest thing is to design them."
Early on, Foster and his management team disagreed over the floor area that the new manufacturing center would need. Foster said 36,000 square meters, and is allowed to argue up to 32,000. But some in the company estimated that the exact figure was 20,000, on which Foster stuck his heels and won. "They told me that if the MPC [McLaren Production Centre] turned out to be too big, I'd be fired," smiled Foster, "but I'm still here." This year, McLaren will achieve nearly 4,000 cars, up against a maximum McLaren uses skilled human technicians to paint its cars, rather than robots, and will stick to that plan in the foreseeable future, although robot mounts have been installed. "You only save on robots if you produce big, big numbers," says Foster. "And besides, really competent painters can do things a little better than robots.They will spot the bottom of a door and paint it carefully."
Engineering vs. Cost:
It is 11 am on a Monday morning – and nine hours since the departure of McLaren chief mechanic Andy Palmer home in Belgium in his "office" McLaren 570 S. There is hardly a more complete way for a Car maker to test what he manufactures that to use for a week of racing across Europe.He likes that, he says, and he looks remarkably cool when we sit down to talk.Instead of the usual onlookers of the road testers, we will dive directly into the economy of cars, cost control that allows to build fabulous cars at a price that the rich ( as opposed to those who are fabulously wealthy) can afford. is a key to maintaining decent volumes year after year, so McLaren aims to save everywhere.
"Look at a Ford Focus loom and compare it to one of ours," he says. "They are not so different, no more than the manufacturing process.One should not cost five times the other.These days we are doing our own studies on the effect of economies of scale on parts prices and on our own negotiations with suppliers, it is really worth it
"Look at the retractable roofs of the 650S and 570 Spider models. They are not the same, but some bits are common. Our job is to make sure we get the most out of it. Maybe on the life cycle of a Spider model, our supplier will send us 5000 roofs. If we use something similar in another Spider model, we need another 5,000. This must be reflected in the price.
Another important factor for engineering bosses, says Palmer, is the pace of the models. When McLaren's well-advertised Track 22 plan is released (meaning 12 new models and derivatives over the next four years), there's no time to waste. McLaren is giving its engineers a 30-month base to produce a new model – assuming it will use a carbon tank and powertrain related to existing models. It will cost a little more for models that contain as many new products as the 720S but less for LT (Longtail) versions of familiar cars. The spectacular new McLaren Senna, already exhausted, started just two years ago.
Palmer also sees savings in the car-building process. The windshield assembly by robot (current in the mass model factories) would cost 3 million pounds at the time of installation of the required equipment, a huge investment for a four day production and little consistent with McLaren's philosophy. So at Woking, the screens come into play.
Why it's more than a numbers game:
Jolyon Nash, global head of McLaren's sales and marketing, of which at Rolls-Royce shows in the fact that he is probably the most impeccably dressed man in Woking, manages to describe the company's rapidly expanding supercar plan for success. continuous commercial
McLaren's biggest expansion came on Nash's watch – he arrived in 2014 – but the picture he's painting is not so much a thirst for ceaseless expansion that a desire for sustainability, even in times of uncertainty at home. He speaks fondly of McLaren's "incessant push for the future", which means a craving to reach the highest level of technology and success in an arena where many good players have been defeated rather than continuing the numbers. McLaren Automotive, he says, "does not need or want to become much bigger."
Nash sees some key goals: a need to build greater brand awareness (McLaren is yet to expand in many promising markets) and greater recognition – even by existing customers – of the open and informal nature of the business (replacing the cold austerity of the past). Such things build long-term stability.
"If you like cars and you're serious driving, you should own a McLaren," he says with a quiet but brilliant conviction. Some car sales and marketing bosses are accused of being more about decoration than about substance, but not this one. Do you get the point? The details make the difference
Find the folks:
By 2020, when the new McLaren carbon chassis plant in Sheffield will be operational, the company will employ 1,600 people . At present, the vats come from a European supplier, but the move from Sheffield will bring back 200 jobs in the UK.
"Finding the right people for a company like McLaren is a very demanding process," says Mandeep Dhatt, director of McLaren. Director of Human Resources who took charge of the process almost five years ago. "It starts with a series of meetings with business managers to decide on the skills, talents, and even attitudes that we need. McLaren Automotive has a very specific culture.
"It is not uncommon to look for people with extremely rare specializations, there could be only 10 experts of a particular kind that we need in the world." Finding the right person asks for research and care, so we use a variety of aids – specialists and head hunters, but also colleagues and peers.We are flexible, but we are mainly interested in people who can match the passion Colleagues we already have.In difficult cases, this process can take three or even six months. "The passion for the company is" almost fierce, "says Dhatt, who considers that one of his The most important tasks is to instill people who will maintain that will.
When McLaren needed a second shift at his Woking manufacturing center, the HR staff was started "Cultural Culture" candidates and then organize mass assessment days to verify that people had the required dexterity and understood the rigors of the job. After the final selection, the staggered dates were set at three months, so that new employees can be presented, trained, checked and finally admitted. McLaren is passionate about quality: no new employees start unsupervised work unless they have proven time and time again that it can reach the norm and, preferably, display the passion of the rest.
The rapid rise of McLaren:
2010: The New Automotive division comes from McLaren Racing and unveils its first model, the MP4-12C
2011: The 12C, as we know, is generally well received but plagued by niggly problems, such as the self-developed Iris infotainment, and also fears that the car is not exciting enough to drive
2013: The P1, a high-performance hybrid successor to F1, is launched, famous at the same time as the rival hypercars of Porsche (918 Spyder) and Ferrari (LaFerrari ). Unbelievable to drive, it's also selling, showing McLaren's ability to credibly compete as a 1m plus car manufacturer.
2014: 12C is revived as the 650S, straightening the wrongs of the 12C. 19659002] 2015: Launch of the new entry-level model, the 570S. So good, it almost makes the 650S more expensive suddenly superfluous.
2017: 720S is launched, instantly defining a new benchmark for supercars. McLaren also announces plans for a new carbon production plant in Sheffield, and reveals record sales of 3,340 cars, double the 2015 volumes.
Talking (and making): [19659002] Paul Buddin, CFO of McLaren Officer, is a funny bookkeeper.
He drives a 570GT, has been to every McLaren outpost in the world, regularly goes to driving events and auto shows and even signs the company's new models. He recalls that McLaren can only embark on projects that bring in money. It's about getting prices, numbers, construction costs, development costs, fixed costs, and correct and secure after-sales profits.
Buddin has been on the staff since McLaren began building his first cars in mid-2010 and still believes his growth rate "looks like a normal business in the canine years." He chairs a department of 70 money-movers nowadays; When he started, he was 20 years old. At first, there was a time when the company owed 70 million pounds sterling and had a business figure of only 6 million pounds for service. "If I had thought about the risk well, I would have found it very stressful," says Buddin, "but I still had confidence in our prospects. Some people consider my work as a simple score, but I am of the opinion that I am part of the team. Whatever happens, it's my responsibility as much as theirs.
Remember that Buddin is clear that his frequent trips The car construction parts of the company are for other reasons than the mere dispensation of goodwill. "I must be able to speak confidently in meetings," says Buddin. "When someone says it's going to cost X to develop that car, and overestimate the figure, I have to be able to say," Well, no it's not. "
Although McLaren claims four years Buddin is talking about a U-shaped graph that shows his total expenses, given the high upfront costs of a company like this- ci, which are only gradually returned. "We are on the rise of the curve," he says.
"It is good to have gone over the minimum point, but we have to maintain steady progress – getting 5,000 cars a year would make a big difference, but if we do not keep up with our progress, there is nothing wrong with it. is acquired. "
Talking to Buddin again reminds you of the many factors that affect the development and manufacture of cars." We have warning lights that we watch all the time, "he says. "Every year, the conditions will be different. We are not just talking about sales volumes. It's things like our ability to build, and our costs to deliver. Are they in good health? Exchange rates are also vital. We export 92% of our cars and 70% are sold in dollars or euros. There are times when your bottom line has surprisingly little to do with your ability to build or sell. These things must also manage; "
Combined:
McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt, who arrived in 2012 as Chief Operating Officer and graduated at the highest level of work a year later, wins universal credit to sweep the glitches early in car quality while quickly building an operation capable of making 4000 cars a year – eight times the manufacturing rate in 2011.
Get cars built in the desired numbers to the good quality is his strength, says Flewitt, ironically quoting the change in scale that he did when leaving Ford for McLaren. "On Friday, I left Ford," he says, "we made 8700 cars, and on Monday I joined McLaren, we made six …"
With a rare Humility, Flewitt believes that it "probably would not have had the business spirit" to take off the McLaren operation. "What I am is a competent manager," he explains. "I did my best to adopt the same professional attitude as at Ford, Volvo or Rolls-Royce, where I was before."
"The greatest thing that already exists here when I arrived, it was our incredible brand," he says. "Our phenomenal racing reputation was easy to communicate, our only road car, F1, had been a decisive model, and we already had a strong shareholder base that is only getting stronger. we need has been a very difficult journey and what we need, it's a mix of people's experience – mine, Alan Foster – and new ideas from people coming out of there. University. "
In June, says Flewitt, the company will sell cars for seven years. There is a stability about McLaren that she did not know up to now: "We have a company with 300 suppliers, working in two shifts, manufacturing 4000 cars, selling through the medium of 90 dealers in 31 countries, which are expected to reach one billion in sales this year. 19659002] "It's different from last year, when we made 3340 cars, 50% more than the year before, and we really struggled to deliver the necessary volume , with our suppliers and our factory. We could have sold more cars, in fact, but we stopped a little. But we did it.
Flewitt thinks a lot about McLaren's future, another of his key duties. "The ideas come from a lot of us," he says, "and we all share the same ambition to develop the business. We have seen too many developing auto companies fail because of poor decision-making to become too confident. So all that is proposed must survive three tests. Is it compatible with our philosophy? Will he make money (we have no room for things that do not do it)? And do we have the technology and the ability to do the best in the world? If everyone gets a yes, we will be serious. "
Read more
McLaren P1 record
McLaren 650s review
McLaren's chronic 1945s
Source link
