Success is our speciality
It was only a matter of time before the giant of tractor manufacturers woke up to the Groundcare market. New Holland comes with a long history, a specialist in agriculture with 100 years of leadership, innovation and brand recognition around the world, born from previous mergers between Ford and FiatAgri.
For 110 years their tractors have been recognised as the best on the market, and with the technical back up of global car manufacturers it's not hard to see why.
Today New Holland has 25 manufacturing plants situated in 14 countries, with over 3,000 dealers and another several thousand service outlets.
On a recent visit to Jesi, a coastal town half way down the East coast of Italy, we were given a tour of the production plant, which has become the New Holland Centre of Excellence. Jesi is also home to their speciality and utility tractor ranges.
In 1977 the company acquired the Jesi manufacturing plant, the plant had been dedicated to the production of components. By 1986 the factory started tractor assembly and in 1996 assembly moved to 2 shifts. In 2001 cab assembly was also introduced and at the beginning of 2007 the 500,000th tractor left the Jesi assembly line.
The Jesi plant covers 189,000 square metres or around 26 football pitches and just over a third of the area is under cover. As well as cab and tractor assembly the plant also carries out transmission assembly and painting. There are nearly 1000 employees at Jesi alone.
The two production lines work around the clock and allow for variable step and model mix assembly, This means that with so many customer variations (6500 different specifications) only 3 like for like tractors out of the 30,000 that roll off the lines are produced in any one year.
Quality is assured by rigorous checks throughout the production process and each tractor that rolls off the production line is then thoroughly tested by members of the highly skilled workforce.
Every day 2 tractors are randomly selected and checked from the customer's viewpoint. Each tractor is given a score in terms of quality and the results are reviewed with representatives from the various plant departments.
The paint spraying line is now automated, the robotic paint system providing a consistent finish on all surfaces. The line electro-statically charges the parts to be sprayed to maximise paint coverage.
The process also reduces paint wastage and ensures the correct number of coats, which vary from part to part.
The 150 tractors that are built every day are then shipped by rail to distribution centres all over the world. From customer order to delivery usually takes around 10-12 weeks.
The current series of Jesi products include:
| Utility | Specialty | All Purpose Light | Crawlers | All Purpose Light Basic |
| TNA |
TNFA |
TLA | TKA | TD Plus |
| TNDA | TNNA | |||
| TNSA | TNVA |
To help understand the range the Series TNV/N/F-A - are fruit tractors, the series TND/S-A are utility tractors, the Series TDD are medium range tractors and the series TL-A are the all purpose tractors.
By the end of 2007 and into 2008, New Holland will be unveiling the new TND/S-A, T4000 Deluxe utility tractors.
The new series T4000 will come with the latest Tier 3 emissioned engines and will replace the current TND/S-A models. This new line up comes with increased power, 3 Cylinder 2.9 litre engines that replace the 4 cylinder 3.2 litre engines. These new super engines offer a 3% reduced fuel consumption on turbo engines with intercooler.
As with many existing series, Supersteer™ will be available on the 95hp model.The new range also offer a true 40 kph transmission and a 10% increase in the hydraulic lift capacity.
The TDD series is aimed at larger grounds and grass maintenance contractor, it comes with a power range of 80 to 95 HP engines. There is a standard 20 x 12 creep speed gearbox and has a high drawbar clearance of up to 25" depending on the wheel specification. The new series TD5000 will also have Tier 3 emissioned engines, as well as air suspension seats and Walterscheid hook ends.
New Holland is investing heavily in its infrastructure and this has seen the opening of a new UK parts distribution centre in Daventry, UK.
This purpose built parts facility is to support the UK and Ireland only, containing more than 35,000 different part numbers. There are automatic, daily replenishments from the New Holland Europe master depot and the stock is based on historical customer demand, which is updated daily.
The operation at Daventry focuses on the stock and supply of parts in an emergency, which includes through the night shipment to dealers - 93% of UK dealers supplied before 08.00am next day.
The center also offers urgent collection where parts can be collected within 1 hour of the dealer ordering a replacement. The central Daventry warehouse complements each of the 141 dealers' own inventory of individual parts and component assemblies. This combined inventory of replacement parts has a stock value in excess of £30M, just in the UK and ROI.