- From today, Google Maps can be used to visit the FCA Melfi Plant, one of largest and most advanced in Europe, where Fiat 500X and Jeep Renegade are made.
- With Google Maps Business View technology, virtual visitors can discover how the stamping, body-in-white, painting and assembly shops work.
- Over one billion Euros have been recently invested making this one of Europe’s most innovative automotive factories. The highest production quality is achieved by implementing the technologies and best practices collected from all other FCA plants.
- The plant was awarded a silver medal for World Class Manufacturing and today has its eyes set on the gold.
- A nearly eight-thousand-strong workforce; five presses and two shearing machines; 860 robots in the body-in-white shop; fifty-four robots in the paint shop; 278 automatic screwing stations; and near four thousand workers in the assembly shop.
- Over five thousand components are used to make the various versions of 500X. The factory works three shifts, 24 hours a day, to make near 500 units of the new Fiat crossover by combining four chassis types, twelve paint colours, five interiors, eight engines and 188 optional equipment packages.
From today, Google Maps Business View can be used to experience an exciting adventure and discover the FCA Melfi Plant on the inside directly on Google Maps. This virtual tour takes users into the plant and illustrates the key aspects of the entire production cycle of Fiat 500X and Jeep Renegade, the most recent FCA models, which are intended for a very diverse clientele.
Accessible from the website fcamelfiplant.fiat.com, the interesting tour visits every corner of the FCA Melfi Plant, which is one of the most technologically advanced automotive factories in Europe, where over one million Euros were recently invested to kick off the production of the new vehicles. The technological expertise and the best practices of all the other FCA plants were implemented and lined up here to secure the very best possible quality from the very start.
No fewer than 3924 photographs were taken during a three-day photo shoot to make the experience as immersive as possible. There are 327 panoramic views, each of which made up of 12 high resolution photographs. Users can move about the Melfi plant exploring it in detail with the user-friendly dynamics of Google Street View, visiting the stamping, body-in-white, painting and assembly units. Again from the official Fiat website, visitors will find videos and pictures to learn more about each step of the manufacturing process to appreciate the technological innovation implemented at the plant and see how this reflects on the high quality of the products which are made here.
The plant has stamping, body-in-white, painting and assembly shops and employees nearly eight thousand workers; five presses and two shearing machines; 860 robots in the body-in-white shop; fifty-four robots in the paint shop; 278 automatic screwing stations; and near four thousand workers in the assembly shop. To describe the steps of this fine-tuned mechanism we need to start from the steel sheets used make the body and follow the future car through the paint shop to the assembly line where all the components are fitted. Over five thousand parts in total are needed to make the various versions of 500X. The factory works three shifts, 24 hours a day, to make near 500 units of the new Fiat crossover by combining four chassis types, twelve paint colours, five interiors, eight engines and 188 optional equipment packages.
Stretching over an area of approximately 1.9 million square metres, the plant was designed by architect Marco Visconti and built from 1991 to 1993 near San Nicola, at 18 kilometres from Melfi, in a district where there were no other industries at the time. Located on a major road connecting the Italian regions of Basilicata, Campania and Puglia, from where many of the factory workers commute, the factory starting production in October 1993. Over the past twenty years, the plant has made many different Fiat and Lancia models, including Fiat Punto (1994), Lancia Ypsilon (1995), new Ypsilon (2003), Grande Punto (2005) and Punto Evo (2009), totally nearly six million cars until March 2015. Today, it is home to the Fiat 500X, Fiat Grande Punto and Jeep Renegade.
On 18 June 2009, the Melfi plant was the first in Italy to be awarded the WCM (World Class Manufacturing) Silver Level certifying the outstanding organisation of the production cycle implemented there. Another interesting aspect that reasserts the special attention dedicated to the entire process is that there have been no accidents at the plant for the past three years. Together with safety, the second guideline is to seek maximum product and construction process quality at all times.
Everything focuses on the centrality of human resources, who are the real driving force of the plant. In these weeks, some 1500 new workers are joining the workforce to respond to the rising demand for Fiat 500X and Jeep Renegade. Both models are exported to over 100 countries worldwide.
An interesting fact: a TV advertisement was broadcast on the night of 31 December 2014 in which Fiat wished a happy new year to all Italians inviting them to believe in growth and welcome the new year with new-found enthusiasm. Leaving these difficult times for the economy behind is not only desirable but also possible, particularly when Italy deploys the elements in which it has always excelled: creativity, redemption, search for beauty and substance.
On the notes of Lucio Dalla’s “L’anno che verrà”, the spot ended with the Melfi workers and the new 500X, two expressions of the same winning Italian spirit. Not by chance, Melfi is one of the most advanced plants in Europe, pride of FCA workers and the entire country, in particular of the under-industrialised south. On the other hand, the model explores a new way of being 500, in which elegant, evolved Italian style outfits the substance of a comfortable, high-performance car which is always connected to the world: this is the X side of beauty, this is the soul of Fiat 500X.