On 9th of Jun 2011, a trip to Proton City had been organized by Enginius Society with collaboration with Proton (Malaysian National Car Company) at their factory in Tanjung Malim, Perak. The External Affairs bureau, one of the student bodies of Enginius Society had been given the responsibility to organize the event with the help from Mohd Hanief Rayney B Azmi as the program manager of the event. He has successfully gather 40 students from various field of engineering branch in Engineering Kulliyyah of IIUM through his drastic advertisement in promoting the event within the student community. Around 7 lecturers from our Kulliyyah of Engineering had been invited to join the program, and 5 of them had agreed to accept the invitation. According to the organizer, the sole purpose of having such event is to expose our student on how a local company such as Proton builds our national cars from clean sheets of metal. Thus it is hope that this will create a sense of interest towards new technology that could be created with engineering knowledge among the participant.
The journey to Proton City had started by gathering all the participants and the lecturer in front of the big stairs of IIUM where from there all of them board the bus. Our trip from IIUM Gombak, to Proton City Tanjung Malim, had taken us around 2 hours in time. With the experience bus driver that we have, all of our participants had arrived at the proton factory safely. The first sight of looking at the Proton City is really magnificent as the factory have a modern design and its layout is build large to accommodate the vast volume of car produce by the factory. The factory itself is located in the middle of the factory build area as the vendors are placed all around the factory complex. This is done to make shipment of parts from the vendors is done within the shortest time. As we arrived at the main gate, we are warmly welcome by the person in charge by Proton for this trip.
From the main gate, we have been escorted by Proton Security to the seminar room that is located on the second level next to the administration building within the complex. Once we came down from the bus, our sight had been greeted by a concept car that had won a creativity competition that had been built by the Proton workers themselves. As we step in towards the factory complex, the smell of new car could be sense all over the place. It was a sense that you could only get when you bought a new car, and it is exhilarating. Once all the participants entered the seminar room, Proton had kindly prepared some refreshment for the entire participant. It is thoughtful of Proton to accommodate us with such serving as many of the participants didn’t have their breakfast yet as they started this trip early in the morning. In the seminar room we have been introduce to the essence of Proton Company and why they exist in the first place.
As we listen to the talk from proton representative speaker, Mr. Azlan, we could understand that Proton Car Company exist as the result of the vision from Tun Dr Mahathir Muhammad, former Malaysian Prime Minister. He believed that a rising nation such as Malaysia should have the ability to manufacturer our own method of transportation in order to support our country development. The building complex in Tanjung Malim is actually the first of three phase plan that had been layout by Proton. In this first phase plan, the building complex does consist of the administration building, factory building, sport complex and a full fledge test track. The next two phases is still under development by Proton, we could expect more development by them in the near future. In this briefing, besides that the discussion about proton, the participant are also been reminded on the precaution that they should take while on the visit such as no pictures taken while in the factory. Before the briefing ended, a question and answer section is open to the floor to allow the lecturer as well as the student to convey their question about Proton Company and their products.
Just after the briefing, all the participants are taken for the visit around the factory from its compound till the working area inside the Proton factory. For your information, Proton Manufacturing Plant in Tanjung Malim consist of 5 plants that are Stamping, Engine and Transmission, Body, Painting, and Trim and Finish Plant. The first place that we have visited is the stamping plant where in this section a big coil of steel is cut into sections and stamped into the required shapes and dimension for building a car. Three stamping machine known as ‘A’, ‘B’, and ’C’ line are available in this section where each of this machine have their own functions. ‘A’ line stamping machine creates the small parts, while the medium sized parts is done by the ‘B’ line stamping machine. While ‘C’ line stamping machine creates large parts such as the hood of a car. After visiting the stamping plant, the coordinator had brought us to the next section in building a car that is the assembly plant. There the students are shown on how the parts that had been made in the stamping plant are assembling together.
In this manufacturing plant, 40% of the work in constructing a car is done by robotic hands; other 60% is finished by human workforce. A spot wield method is used in holding the car parts together as this method can be done in a fast paced compared to the normal wielding method. As the car is assembled together, it is then painted with the colour ordered by their customer. All the customize order that are being made by the customer is fulfilled by following the ‘AIS’ or also known as Assembly Instruction Sheet. This piece of paper sheet consist all the things that a car owner want to be included with their brand new car. In proton assembly plant, one line process is adapted where various models are made in one line. We have been inform by the Coordinator that in Proton Tanjung Malim, there are 4 type of model being manufactured, there are Pesona, Saria Neo, Savvy and Gen 2.
As the visit come to an end, all the participants had been really grateful with the whole program as it gives them the opportunity to learn new things from this visit to Proton Tanjung Malim. We had learned that Malaysian cars such as Proton were not low quality product as we heard from the rumors. The visit has given us a good impression towards the quality of Proton products as we could observe on the way they try to achieve a high standard in the way they manufactured their cars. In conclusion, the trip had successfully cultivated the interest among the student towards new technology that could be developed using the knowledge of engineering and they should know that engineering could bring us a bigger success in the near future.
Program manager of the event.
A model of administration building.
Trip To Proton Participants
Proton Concept Car
Refreshment by Proton.
Proton Briefing on the factory visit.
Proton representative speaker.
Proton Tanjung Malim layout.
Participant going to the Stamping Plant.
Sneak peak of the entrance
New car line up.
Boarding the bus.
The participants
The evolution of Proton Cars in 25 years
The enthusiastic coordinator.
Administration building.
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