MAN Truck & Bus South Africa (SA) has opened a new R180-million parts distribution centre (PDC) in Germiston, Gauteng.

The new facility, located roughly four kilometres from the company’s Isando headquarters and the OR Tambo International Airport, has been designed to house greater inventories of MAN and Volkswagen truck and bus spare parts, and to ensure swifter deliveries to the truck and bus manufacturer’s sub-Saharan customer base.

The PDC is a Super Group facility, designed and built by commercial property developer Intaprop.

“The introduction of new systems for procurement and parts supply chain management, along with the expansion of our global spare-parts logistics network, is enabling us to progressively meet the needs of our growing African customer base,” says MAN Truck & Bus AG CEO Anders Nielsen.

The PDC has been custom-built to MAN specifications and comprises 17 000 m2 of warehouse space with 1 000 m2 of office space.

It will directly handle 90% of all MAN spare parts in South Africa.

“We can say ‘we were good’ if in the next few months if our customers notice nothing of our relocation – except that they get better and faster supplies of parts,” notes Nielsen.

The PDC will be the first regional warehouse outside Europe to be fully integrated with MAN information technology systems.

The warehouse will operate on the German group’s parts platform system and features a new racking system, as well as a 1 600 m2, three-level mezzanine area for smaller parts.

“The new facility has been designed to comfortably allow for future expansion of MAN Truck & Bus SA into the sub-Saharan region, particularly as MAN’s global strategy gains momentum with the introduction of new models,” says MAN Truck & Bus SA executive chairperson Geoff du Plessis.

“The new facility will also be geared to comprehensively support existing and forthcoming truck and bus derivatives from MAN and Volkswagen.”

To limit its carbon footprint, the new building incorporates a specially-designed roof to allow as much natural light as possible into the warehouse. It is also fitted with special lighting and thermal insulation to reduce the building’s overall energy requirements. 

Based in Munich, Germany, MAN Truck & Bus generated a turnover of €9-billion in the 2012 financial year, with sales of 74 680 trucks and 5 286 buses and bus chassis under the MAN and Neoplan brands.