Navistar International, the maker of International brand commercial trucks and proprietary diesel engines, recently joined the City of San Antonio, Bexar County and the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation (SAEDF) in a virtual groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate construction of Navistar’s new manufacturing facility in San Antonio TX.
Ceremony speakers included Navistar executives Troy A Clarke, chairman, president and chief executive officer; Persio Lisboa, executive vice president and chief operating officer; and Mark Hernandez, senior VP of global manufacturing. Texas leaders Gov Greg Abbott; San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg; Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff; San Antonio Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran; San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh; and SAEDF CEO Jenna Saucedo-Herrera also joined the celebration.
“This groundbreaking ceremony marks a milestone for us in the development of our new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility,” Clarke said. “We are excited to become part of the San Antonio community and we’re confident this facility will reinforce Navistar’s gains in the marketplace.”
Located near Interstate 35, off US Highway 281 and the frontage road connecting to Mitchell Lake Trailhead, 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 early 2022, bringing more than 600 jobs to the San Antonio area.
“It’s an honor to welcome Navistar into the Lone Star State’s thriving community of innovation, technology and economic momentum,” Abbott said. “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.”
Navistar said the more than $250 million investment in Texas is a key component to its “Navistar 4.0” growth strategy. The location of the San Antonio plant allows for logistics improvements and a consolidation of the company’s supply base. The new facility also will 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, executive vice president and chief operating officer at 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 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.