MBUSI Legal Disclaimer

All information contained in www.mbusi.com is based on the latest product specifications/information at the time of publication.

Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. reserves the right to make changes at any time, without notice, in color, materials, equipment, specifications, models, output, etc. Any color variations shown are due to technical computer variations. Some images used herein may depict non-U.S. and/or test vehicles and/or optional equipment. For purchasing information in the U.S.A., please contact www.MBUSA.com.

>  Close  <

MBUSI Trivia

Examine; Ascertain…

Everything you really wanted to know about Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Factory.

Home > Products > MBUSI Trivia  

MBUSI Manufacturing Trivia

  • MBUSI facility is on 3,803,240 square meters (approx. 1000 acres) – we are utilizing 2/3rds of our area
  • 571,003 First Generation M-Class were built
  • The first plant was approx 1.2 million square feet – now we have a total of over 3 million square feet or 298,700 square meters
  • 65% of vehicle content comes from NAFTA region - the engines and transmissions come from Germany
  • We have one body shop, two paint shops, and two assembly shops all under one roof
  • Plant 1 and 2 can build both the M-Class and the GL-Class; the R-Class can only be built in Plant 2
  • Team Members all wear “Team Wear”; administration team members work in an open office environment to enhance open communications.
  • Team Members wear special safety shoes that are rated “ESD” that prevents Electric Static Discharge – to prevent potential damage to electronic components.
  • Every vehicle we build here is for an order from one of our135 worldwide markets
  • The Plants were constructed to be flexible in order to accommodate the M-Class, R-Class, and the GL-Class
  • Because of the increased technology in our product today and the complexity of the new products, there is more automation in our plants. We now have approximately 800 robots in the plant, of those, approx. 640 are in the Body Shop compared to the 60 robots in the previous Body Shop which helps ensure repeatability and consistency
  • Production volume in 2008 was 152,000 vehicles (M-R-GL Class) using flexible manufacturing technology.
  • The welding of the W164 body is a precision process. There are over approximately 5,000 welds added to the body. Welds not only hold the components together, they add safety and overall dimensional accuracy
  • The Perceptron laser measurement device a highly accurate procedure utilizing laser sensors to ensure that the dimensions on every body meet the Mercedes-Benz standard of excellence. The perceptron has cameras located on the robot that measure selected dimensional spots.
  • MBUSI uses “Just-in-Time” (JIT). It is a manufacturing method based on the idea that we don’t stockpile large amounts of the inventory we use to assemble our Mercedes. In fact, in the assembly shop we only keep about 2 hours of inventory on line, whereas in the body shop we have approx. three hours line side.
  • The Energy Center makes the whole assembly process possible team members in the Energy Center located between the two plants work around the clock in three shifts to make sure that we have all the electricity, natural gas, compressed air, and various waters used in the manufacturing process. The energy required at full production is approximately 50 million watts (roughly the same as 10,000 typical homes)