obviously less during the last recession.” The numbers necessitate that all assembly is carried
out manually, without any form of robotics in the production process.
Its European footprint encompasses the entire European continent, including Scandinavia and
the United Kingdom, as well as Russia and, from last year, North America has been included
in its market.
Since 2012, Bell has been exporting ADTs to the US, where previously, the market was covered
by John Deere distributors, as Bell was under agreement to not sell its ADT machines into that
market. Stephan explains, “but now the doors are open and Bell can sell into the US.” (John
Deere has since launched its own ADT model.) “At the end of last year, we contracted with a
large Canadian dealer for 50 machines and we have another order from the US, for a further
50 machines.”
According to Stephan, the assembly plant produces to order: “We can say that every truck
has an order number attached to it, whether it be a customer order, or an order from a sales
subsidiary, ordering for stock purposes, enabling them to fill unscheduled orders timeously.”
Six models of differing sizes are produced in the assembly plant: the small trucks, which are
B25 and B30; large trucks comprising B35 and B40 and the very large B45 and now the B50
models. “In the small trucks, we are looking at about 100 hours of work per truck, while the
With controls ergonomically at
hand and a digital display, the
E-series cab comes with an on-
board computer that speaks to
the operator and machine via a
South African designed Central
Display Unit (CDU). The system
also includes ‘manuals’ in the
event that the operator requires
additional information that is not
readily available.
Bay 5:
In this section, fine tuning, installation of
the drive train, air conditioners and other smaller
components takes place.
Bay 6 Right top and bottom:
The bin and
hydraulics are fitted and ‘Baby cries’ as liquids
flow through the system for the first time.
The bin is lined with Hardox 400 as are all
areas that come into contact with the load,
to minimise wear and damage, adding to
structural strength of the high tensile steel.
In this bay the truck is customised, with
fitment of special options required for planned
application/s.
André is confident that
the North American
business will be
beneficial: “This will
offer good throughput
for the factory and we
are looking at increasing
our production rate into
the future.”
