Ikhwezi Trucktech (Pty) Ltd, the company that assembles all completely knocked down (CKD) commercial vehicles for DaimlerChrysler South Africa has, after being operational for five years, recently celebrated the building of the 10 000th Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle.

The company also assembles Freightliner and Mitsubishi FUSO commercial vehicles from CKD kits.

Owing to Ikhwezi Trucktech’s world-class truck assembly and manufacturing facilities, as well as standards and processes, a phenomenal 400% volume increase and more than 15 000 CKD units have been built over the past five years.

The Mercedes-Benz CKD Bus and Mitsubishi extra-heavy FUSO assembly lines were successfully introduced in 2006. 2007 looks forward to a number of new models being introduced across all product lines, as the company continues to grow.

On-time delivery and product quality are Ikhwezi Trucktech’s key objectives. The company consistently meets and exceeds quality targets, with its focus on continual improvement and an emphasis on working towards zero-defect. To this end Ikhwezi Trucktech has retained their ISO 9001:2000 certification since the company’s inception in 2002.

“Ikhwezi Trucktech is dedicated to achieving the standards expected from its customer. These standards continuously increase as the customer expectations increase. By continually improving the products we assemble, these products will remain market leaders in the commercial vehicle manufacturing industry,” says Tom Cawood.

As part of Ikhwezi Trucktech’s social responsibility initiative, they have successfully supported and developed an NQF learnership programme, which started in 2006. A Bursary Programme in the technical field has been initiated with the Walter Sisulu University (WSU), and is targeted towards students who are from previously disadvantaged groups.

Another highlight was the recent signing of a ‘Recognition Agreement’ between Ikhwezi Trucktech and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).

The company’ growth has also seen an increase in its employee complement, and an on-going upgrade of plant facilities.