Texas’ First Virtual Groundbreaking Welcomes Navistar to San Antonio
Navistar, a leading maker of International brand commercial trucks, proprietary diesel engines and IC Bus brand school and commercial buses, celebrated the virtual groundbreaking of its new industry-leading manufacturing facility in San Antonio that will initially create 600 new jobs in the area.
The new 900,000-square-foot plant will have the capacity to produce Class 6-8 vehicles. Vehicle production at the facility is scheduled to begin in early 2022.
“It’s an honor to welcome Navistar into the Lone Star State’s thriving community of innovation, technology and economic momentum,” said Greg Abbott, governor of Texas. “The state’s partnership with a leader in commercial vehicle innovation will fuel Texas’ COVID-19 recovery by providing great job opportunities to our diverse and highly skilled manufacturing workforce.”
The more than $250 million investment in San Antonio is a key component to the company’s “Navistar 4.0” growth strategy. The location of the San Antonio plant allows for significant logistics improvements and a consolidation of the company’s supply base. The new facility will also incorporate the latest manufacturing principles – digital factory, connected machinery, robust lean manufacturing processes and cloud analytics – to enable predictive quality and maintenance, and allow data-driven decisions to be made on the shop floor in real time.
“We are excited to launch Manufacturing 4.0 concepts at our new facility, as these advancements will reduce manufacturing complexity and increase quality,” said Persio Lisboa, president and chief executive officer, Navistar. “Sharing these new industrial advances and Manufacturing 4.0 concepts with our existing plants is an additional benefit we anticipate from our experience with this new facility.”
The industry-leading facility will include a general assembly line, body shop, paint shop and logistics center, as well as a truck specialty center, to make aftermarket modifications on-site.
The virtual groundbreaking ceremony can be viewed here.