Tracking and Managing More Than 150,000 Vehicles Annually Across 300+ Acres, WhereNet System Helps Luxury Car Maker Improve Throughput, Productivity, and Order-to-Cash Cycles

SOLIHULL, England and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ — WhereNet Corp., a Zebra Technologies company and the leader in wireless solutions for tracking and managing enterprise assets, announced today that Land Rover’s expanded use of the standards-based WhereNet(R) active RFID, real-time locating system (RTLS) technology has helped the luxury automaker automate processing of more than 150,000 new vehicles annually. Deployed at Land Rover’s 308-acre assembly plant in Solihull, England, WhereNet’s Vehicle Tracking and Management System (VTMS) improves production velocity and throughput, labor productivity, order-to-cash cycles, and vehicle quality. The Solihull plant produces the Defender, Discovery 3/LR3, Range Rover, and Range Rover Sport vehicles.

“We used to spend a considerable amount of time searching our huge facility to locate vehicles,” said Dave O’Reilly, manager, manufacturing and purchasing IT for Land Rover. “Now, the precise location of all new vehicles is always at our fingertips. The information the WhereNet system provides is critical in optimizing production, supporting lean manufacturing, and ensuring that Land Rover delivers the highest-quality vehicles.” (more…)

Land Rover has announced its appointment as the Official Vehicle Partner to Snowsport GB, the British Alpine Ski Team and the British Snowboard Team.

As Official Vehicle Partner, Land Rover will provide all team members - including Britain’s number one female down hill skier, Chemmy Alcott together with Finlay Mickel and brothers Alain and Noel Baxter - with a fleet of Discovery 3s and Range Rover Sports to support them during the World Cup season.

“As a British brand, we are delighted to be able to support the best of British skiers and snowboarders in their pursuit of World Cup victory,” commented John Edwards, managing director for Land Rover UK. “Land Rover vehicles provide the ultimate capability required to ensure that the team members can travel safely and comfortably between competitions, often through treacherous snowy conditions.” (more…)

The Land Rover Discovery 3 V8 HSE won the first place in the Moroccan Desert Storm Rally, and was driven by the Duckworth Dealership.

The rally was a 5-day event headed to the Sahara desert through the Rift and Atlas mountains. The Discovery’s sponsor was Texaco/Haveline, with 24 competitors taking part in the event. The director of Duckworth, Ben Duckworth, was the driver. He was supported by his sales executive, Howard Belt.

Good quality oil has been used in the vehicle and even though it was subjected to excessive heat and pressure during the rally, it hardly used any oil at all.

Land Rover, being in relationship with Chevron, uses their fluids and lubricants. The company also sells Havoline engine oil. In order to keep the car’s fuel system clean, the programme of Havoline Performance Plus is being used in Land Rover vehicles. The company also distributes Levanto AirCon Treatment.

Land Rover has signed a major sponsorship deal with ESPN-owned global rugby portal Scrum.com to sponsor its Six Nations Fantasy League game.

The integrated sponsorship deal includes the branded game and its promotion across the rugby portal and ESPN’s European platforms, which includes Cricinfo.com and ESPNsoccernet.com.

The deal kicks off on Saturday (2 February) when England take on Wales in the tournament’s opening game at Twickenham.

It’s the third consecutive year that Land Rover has sponsored the Six Nations Fantasy game on Scrum.com. Last year the global rugby portal’s game attracted more than 25,000 users.

Andy Griffiths, UK MD of Land Rover, said the sponsorship was “an important facet of our ongoing association with rugby in the UK”. (more…)