Fiat reaches 5 million cars at Melfi’s SATA plant

Fiat is celebrating the production of the 5 millionth vehicle at Fiat Group Automobile’s SATA plant in San Nicola di Melfi (Potenza, Italy). The milestone vehicle that came off the production line on Monday was a Punto Evo 1.4 Emotion, 105 CV, 5 doors, in red, an evolution of the Grande Punto.

To celebrate the occasion Fiat organized a ceremony which was attended by Governor of the Basilicata region, Vito De Filippo, the President of the Province of Potenza, Piero Lacorazza, the President of the Confindustria Basilicata Pasquale Carrano, the Bishop of the Diocese of Melfi-Rapolla-Venosa, Mgr. Gianfranco Todisco and the Director of the SATA plant, Nicola Intrevado.

A series of posters, on a variety of topics inspired by the components of each of the 5,000,000 vehicles produced, decorated the site to signal the occasion.

Currently producing the Punto Evo, Grande Punto and Punto Classic models, the history of the SATA plant (Società Automobilistica Tecnologie Avanzate) goes back to 1993. This plant is able to show the leading role which the Fiat Group has had in the evolution of the organisational structure of European factories. The construction of the plant, located in San Nicola, 18 km from Melfi, started in 1991. The work started with the production of the first Fiat Punto vehicles.

Since it started operating the SATA plant was responsible for the production of the first Punto (produced from 1993 to 1999), the second generation Punto ((first produced in 1999 and currently retailed as the Punto Classic), the Grande Punto that arrived to the market in 2005 and the Punto Evo, starting in September 2009. Another vehicle that also contributed for SATA plant to achieve the 5 million milestone was the Lancia Ypsilon. Between 1995 and 2005 the Melfi production line built 870,000 units of the two generations of this model.

In 18 June 2009 the Mefi plant was the first Italian factory to be awarded Silver Level certification by WCM (World Class Manufacturing), an international standard for production cycle organisation. The WCM principles and methods helped the plant to improve in terms of logistics and quality and to reduce its costs.

Work at the Mefi plant is organized based on the principles of “lean manufacturing” (integration of functions and tasks at all levels, decentralisation of the decisional powers, shortening of the chain of command and increasing of information transparency). Thanks to the modular production gives the possibility to achieve a greater variety and variability of products, which redefines the role of the supplier. At the same time it reduces the complexity of production by reducing the quantity of parts to be assembled and simplifying operations.