Crusader cracks sub-one hour caravan production rate

How long does it take to produce a caravan in Australia?

With all sorts of factories from one-man operations to 1000-strong workforces, and a variety of approaches to manufacturing by Australia's 100-plus caravan builders, it's not a simple answer.

Low volume off-road specialist Bruder reckons it can take up to a 1000 hours to piece together one of its go-anywhere EXP trailers, while the Jayco mega-factory in Dandenong, Victoria was at one time pumping out nine caravans a day -- although that was only counting one popular model!

Somewhere in between is Lotus Caravans, which currently rolls out two 'vans a day at its mid-sized Epping, Victoria factory.

Of course, not helping speed up things is the fact most of the 20,000-odd caravans produced down under annually are largely hand-built, with minimal automation.

Which brings us to one of Australia's biggest-selling caravan manufacturers Crusader, which moved into a large new state-of-the-art factory in Melbourne's north around three years ago, and has now confessed to Manufacturers' Monthly that it currently rolls out a caravan every 54 minutes -- or approximately eight 'vans a day, or 40 a week.

The purpose-built 15,010sqm Epping, Victoria facility has allowed the 24-year-old manufacturer to double its production, while also enabling Crusader to move from traditional 'batch' production to a more efficient automotive-style continuous flow assembly line.

Crusader's general manager of operations, Erkut Fevzi, said the manufacturer's previous 'old school' method of multiple vans on the line and teams working on each simultaneously, was less efficient as it "causes excessive downtime, lots of waste, and you don’t have capability or control in your manufacturing process".

After utilising a value stream mapping lean tool "to better understand suppliers, inputs, processes, outcomes and get the company’s operations where they need to be", he said Crusader went down the route of setting up a continuous flow, one-piece production line, with a total of 181 workers now spread over 22 workplaces, resulting in the speedy one-caravan-every--54-minutes' statistic.

 “Think automotive – think Ford, Holden, Toyota – it’s one big assembly line with a designed cycle time, where the line moves at a scheduled sequence all the time. We may be the first OEM to introduce a continuous flow assembly line into caravan manufacturing," Fevzi said.

“Each workplace is designed to complete all work activities and component assembly in that time.

“We’ve set up supermarket racking with all parts at the workstations, so operators can spend nearly 100 per cent of their time building caravans.”

Crusader made the bold move (for an Australian caravan manufacturer) of going full-composite construction a few years ago, and does most of the production in-house, including electrical work, furniture construction and roof and wall assembly; carefully combining around 500 parts to complete each 'van.

“To be able to do this efficiently, we’ve had to design lots of sub-assembly stations that are offline,” he said. “That gives you the ability to produce parts and assemble them to a certain point where they can stay in WIP (Work in Progress) or your buffer stock.

“A team of material handlers will then get that material and support that production line to move in the allocated time all day.”

Crusader utilises statistical process control tools as part of its stringent quality control program, which has helped it score multiple ‘Best Victorian Manufacturer’ awards as well as achieve RV Master accreditation.

The big-selling caravan builder said it increased production from 20 to 40 'vans a week within 12 months of moving into the new factory, and plans to boost that again to 50 'vans by September.

Related: Crusader launches 2025 caravan range