2009 Annual Report - ChartNexus

Operations Review
Manufacturing
The Group is fully cognisant that manufacturing excellence
is essential to sharpen PROTON’s competitive edge in today’s
increasingly challenging environment given the more
sophisticated customer base.
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To achieve new levels of excellence in spite of tough economic conditions, the production
landscape at PROTON has had to evolve, especially in view of manufacturing new products
such as the iconic Saga and Malaysia’s first home-grown multi-purpose vehicle (MPV),
the Exora. The Group, as such, implemented several manufacturing processes to enhance
quality and production levels to better meet the discerning needs of customers locally and
globally.
During the period under review, owing to a high number of bookings for the Saga,
the main plant in Shah Alam had to implement two shifts for the production of 6,122
units in April. Production volume was subsequently increased to 8,000 units a month
by September 2008.
Production volume at the Tanjung Malim factory also saw an increase with the introduction
of the Persona Special Edition (SE), a restyled version of the original Persona. However, due
to the global economic meltdown in demand, sales of new cars dropped significantly in the
second half of 2008. By December 2008, the plant in Tanjung Malim returned to a one-shift
operation which was subsequently adopted by the main plant in January 2009.