INFORMATIVE OPINION

Valmet and Boxster Production Info
Posted by Reggie on Saturday, 4 October 1997, at 10:30 p.m.

Here are some facts about Valmet and about how the Boxster is made which will be of interest to those concerned about Finnish production. This is taken from published sources which I will cite so you know where I got the info. Valmet is a major world corporation whose stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and which has manufacturing divisions all over the globe. They have a web site at http://www.valmet.com which has a lot of information about the automobile factory and Boxster production. There are pictures of the plant and production lines and even an e-mail address you can contact with comments (please be polite and professional). The site is searchable, so you can type in "Porsche" for example and pull up press releases and so forth on the Valmet Boxster. I'll provide some highlights here and also will provide some info from Porsche on Boxster production technology.

Valmet has been around a long time and has a first rate reputation for machinery design and production. They are considered by many to be the world's leading supplier of large paper and board production machinery but have also manufactured aircraft, ships, locomotives, outboard motors, and military artillery. The automotive division is only a small part of the company but is one of Europe's most modern car production facilities, employing about 1200 people (of which about 300 are involved in Boxster production) and building more cars per year than does Porsche at Zuffenhausen (about 30,000 cars in 1996 compared with Porsche's 25,000). It is an interesting facility in that there is no Valmet brand car but rather the factory is specifically set up to manufacture cars for other firms (such as Porsche) and to meet those firms' production standards and methods. Boxster production at Valmet uses a new welding line built specifically for the Boxster at a cost of over 100 million Finnish Markka (about 19 million U.S. dollars) and the cars are painted in Valmet's paint facility (attention Paint Chipping thread participants).

Porsche itself uses an interesting production process for the Boxster. The car is largely assembled from pre-built modules, many of which are made not by Porsche but by subcontractors. Thus when one talks about a Zuffenhausen or Finnish built car one is really only talking about the *final* assembly point. For example the convertible top and linkage is supplied ready to install by Car Top Systems (which Porsche operates jointly with Mercedes), the front and rear suspension/axle modules are supplied pre-built by the Krupp Hoesch group, Brembo of Italy supplies the brakes and wheel carriers, body parts are stamped out by BMW at its press plants, and both the manual and Tiptronic transmission are supplied complete by an outside supplier (my guess is it's Audi). This info is from the Porsche Boxster book published by Porsche's Public Affairs and Press Department. To quote from the volume, "The Boxster is the first Porsche to adopt the latest principle of assembly from large, complex modular elements....(it) is built up from pre-assembled modules on the final assembly line." Thus large sections of the car may already be assembled by other firms before Zuffenhausen or Valmet ever starts assembly of your car. By the way, the Boxster book, which is gorgeous and contains way more production details than I can convey here, is carried by major bookstores. The title is Porsche Boxster and the authors are Becker, Lewandowski, and Volker. When you see this book and read the text and look at the photos in it, you really appreciate what a phenomenal job Porsche has done with the Boxster. This car is one class act, no question about it.

I hope this info helps those of you with production questions. Do pull up the Valmet site if you have an interest in Valmet Automotive, and check out the Boxster book if you want to know more about Boxster design and assembly methods. I have no connection whatsoever with Valmet or Porsche or the book, by the way. I'm just a guy waiting on his Boxster to get here, who thought this info might be useful to you.

--Reggie

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