smart has always come up with new approaches and methods – and this also applies to the production. The smart fortwo is produced in a purpose-built plant in the French town of Hambach. The smart factory, also called smartville, started production in 1997. The assembly plant has been designed the shape of a plus sign. This basic design is perfect for logistics and assembly requirements and ensures efficient production processes. System partners located on site supply partly pre-fabricated modules straight to the assembly line. In some cases they fit their prefabricated modules in the smart themselves. This enables transport and logistics costs to be reduced to a minimum. Flexibility, just-in-time and minimum delivery times at all levels are among the factors that continue to set the benchmark today. This enables the smart fortwo to be assembled in approximately three hours.

The smartville plant has an area of 732 000 square metres, 138 337 square metres of which are built over. Here, approximately 830 smart employees currently work in two shifts and the same number again are employed by the supplier partners. The employees have flexible time accounts which allow them to work more or less hours as needed. This results in satisfied employees and greater production flexibility.

A decision in favour of Hambach was made after carefully evaluating more than 70 possible locations and is seen as an expression of commitment to producing in Europe. Located in central Europe very close to the German border, smartville has excellent access to international traffic routes. It is located (in Lorraine, Département Moselle) right on the A4 Strasbourg – Paris motorway and on a rail line. In addition, the Sarreguemines region has a wealth of skilled workers, the majority of whom are bilingual.

The cross-shaped assembly plant offers decisive advantages. The structure takes up little space and the maximum distance between the docking point for the delivery trucks and the assembly line is ten metres. Furthermore, the sub-sections of the line are independent of one another. This enables small buffers to be planned that prevent the assembly line coming to a complete standstill in the event of problems.

An additional building functions as a product integration and preparation centre. It is located outside the assembly complex and forms the link between Product Development in Germany, the system partners and the assembly in Hambach. The southern end of the site has a 1500 metre test track for testing pre-production cars and quality assurance with lots of different road surfaces for chassis and suspension tuning.

Put in simple terms, the four branches of the assembly building have the following functions:

The partnership model practised in Hambach is a logical development of the conventional manufacturer-supplier relationship. It elevates the car manufacturer to a module system integrator, a process manager and producer with overall responsibility. However, every system partner also assumes full responsibility for their area of responsibility. This modern system produces partners with a high level of motivation who contribute to the profitable realisation of common business objectives with their own innovative approaches.

The following system partners work in Hambach:

System partners for the smart's drive unit and suspension are firmly integrated in the cooperation model, but not located in Hambach.

However, it is not only in development and production that smart is consistently pioneering new processes; the logistics are also organised in close cooperation with operators located in smartville. For example, the logistics and transport company Panopa is responsible for supplying parts to the line and controlling means of transport, and Mosolf is responsible for delivering customer vehicles.

An ecological planting concept ensures the harmonious integration of the factory park in the rolling hilly countryside of Lorraine. It is characterised by the flowing transition of the factory site into the adjoining village and woodland landscape. The planting includes meadows, tree avenues and even orchards! In addition to the fire-fighting water storage reservoir that also has a biotope function, a pond with water and green plants ensures that an ecological balance is maintained.

The factory park in Hambach is an unparalleled model of ecological compatibility. No building materials listed in a “blacklist” of (forbidden) environmentally harmful substances were used. All buildings are therefore free of formaldehyde and fluorocarbon. Their façades are clad with "trespa", a raw material for the most part obtained from fast-growing European timber. A distinction was even made between waste water from roof gutters and road/car park drainage: the roof water is routed to storage reservoirs for use as fire-fighting water. All other surface waste water is fed through oil separators, treated in storage reservoirs and used.

Ecological principles also apply to the production. A state-of-the-art central biological waste treatment plant cleans all sanitary and industrial waste water. It works with biomembranes in accordance with the Biosep process – an extremely flexible recycling method used for the first time in France. The purified waste water is used for watering green spaces and for cooling in the production process.

The chassis of the two-seater smart is completely powder-coated. This is the first time that this economical and environmentally friendly painting process
has been used 100% in car manufacturing. Above and beyond its outstanding ecological compatibility, the process is characterised by the high quality of the coating. Furthermore, there are no solvent emissions and no hazardous waste such as paint sludge is produced. Zinc phosphating is used in the whole process without passivation i.e. the process is lead- and cadmium-free. The strict implementation of ecological goals is also illustrated in the recovery and re-use of excess material, for example overspray powder.

When the smartville energy concept was implemented high priority was given to an energy-saving policy right from the start - from effective sound and heat insulation in the façade construction of the building to consistent implementation of integral heat recovery concepts. For example, waste heat from injection moulding operations and waste air from the paint shop are conducted through rotating heat recuperators and air-to-air heat exchangers. This unparalleled use of waste heat means that there is no need for cooling towers, which ultimately saves money and resources. A power centre in smartville consisting of a heating plant and a block power station was also constructed with state-of-the-art technology. Even burning natural gas instead of conventional fuels results in lower pollutant emissions. The use of waste heat increases the efficiency.

Environmental protection measures have always been an integral part of smart's development. As early as 1994 an environmental management system certified in accordance with DIN EN ISO 14001 was anchored in the specifications. A high proportion of recycled material is used in the smart fortwo and an impressively high level of recyclability achieved.

The modular construction of the smart moreover guarantees efficient dismantling at the end of its lifecycle. This is a prerequisite for enabling material cycles to be closed. These measures enable the company to realise a previously unseen level of ecological product responsibility that is also promoted by the company's philosophy. With its dynamic, continuously improving environmental management system, the new smart brand has set a milestone for environmentally compatible individual mobility.