Norton Motorcycles has everything under one roof with new factory

Norton Motorcycles has revealed its new 73,000ft² factory as it aims to manufacture up to 8,000 motorcycles per year.

The facility was built within 18 months of being acquired by Indian automotive giant, TVS Motor Company.

The new factory has doubled shopfloor size and housed all departments under one roof. From the showroom, servicing area, production floor all the way through to the inspection light tunnel, the new factory has an open plan design to see each division.

Across production, every specialist room in the factory is also complete with viewing windows for total transparency, from the quality lab to the engine build room and through to fabrication.

The only thing not visible is Norton’s new global design and R&D hub, where work on product definition, 3D CAD and visualisation for future models is ongoing.

Within the production area, TVS has invested significantly in new equipment and tooling to improve the production processes, with every stage designed with quality and consistency in mind.

In fabrication, frame tubes are inspected before being polished and then released to be welded in-house. Finally, frames are then polished by hand to give them their complete finish and shine.

Norton now has its own in-house non-destructive and destructive testing laboratory where it carefully inspects and tests its welding consistency and integrity.

The layout itself was designed to optimise sustainability and reduce waste, creating a mostly open-plan production floor that gives substantial space for manufacturing and adding additional build stations if we need to.

This flexibility allows built engines to feed directly from the engine clean room through to the assembly line where frames, suspension, fuel tanks and body work are fitted.

At the end of its journey, every bike goes through a testing cycle on the rolling road, followed by a final examination in a light tunnel and inspection area before being collected or delivered to customers.

New CEO, Robert Hentschel, commented: “The new headquarters is the perfect platform to re-energise our business as we lead the Norton brand to onward success. It demonstrates our unwavering commitment to the motorcycles we build, signalling that we will not compromise on quality and we will continue to ensure that our high standards are always met. Norton is now fit for the future, creating an innovative and sustainable business model which will see us producing world-class motorcycles that are true to the unrivalled legacy of Norton.”

Norton Motorcycles
www.nortonmotorcycles.com