Daimler Trucks North America LLC (DTNA) has opened its new manufacturing plant in Saltillo, Coahuila, in northern Mexico, where the company will produce Freightliner's Cascadia heavy-duty Class 8 truck.
This plant in Saltillo can produce up to 30,000 Cascadia trucks annually for sale in U.S., Canadian, and Mexican markets. The Cascadia will be introduced on the domestic market in Mexico in late 2009.
The facility, which was built with an investment of $300 million, covers 1.3 million square feet of space and includes a production facility, a logistics center, administration building, and a training center.
“With the new Daimler Trucks North America production plant in Saltillo, Mexico, Daimler Trucks is improving its competitive position on the North American continent over the long term,” said Andreas Renschler, member of the Daimler AG Board of Management and head of Daimler Trucks.
The decision in favor of northern Mexico was influenced by the site's logistical advantages, including proximity to raw material sources, suppliers, and customers, as well as good connections with the road and rail network.
The Saltillo plant is the second Daimler Trucks North America manufacturing facility to be located in Mexico, joining the Santiago Tianguistenco plant, which produces Freightliner-branded heavy and medium-duty trucks for domestic Mexico sales, as well as for export to Latin America, the United States, and Canada.
Efficiency and quality standards at the Saltillo production plant are based on the Truck Operating System (TOS) of Daimler Trucks. This management system, which was introduced in all plants worldwide as part of the Global Excellence program, aims to create an extraordinarily lean plant organization, with the goal of achieving perfect first-time quality and the highest degree of efficiency in all processes.