After five years as site manager of the smart plant in Hambach, on 1 April 2016, Dr Joachim Betker hands over to his successor Serge Siebert. Dr Annette Winkler, Head of smart: "Serge Siebert has worked at the smart plant in Hambach for many years in various management positions and has an excellent reputation among the team. I am convinced that he will continue Dr Betker's outstanding work and I wish both colleagues good luck and success in their new positions."
As of 1 April 2016 Serge Siebert will become site manager of the smart plant in Hambach. He succeeds Dr Joachim Betker, who will move to the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen where he will become head of assembly for the Roadster SLC and SL. Siebert is one of the pioneers of the smart plant in Hambach: He has held various management positions since May 1996, amongst others in the fields of assembly planning, process and building maintenance and as head of assembly. Since 1 January 2015 he has been responsible for the logistics/supplier management division. Thanks to his many years of experience and various management functions he has profound knowledge of the smart production system in Hambach.
"Serge Siebert has worked at the smart plant in Hambach for many years in various management positions and has an excellent reputation among the team. I am convinced that he will continue Dr Betker's outstanding work for the smart brand and the Hambach plant, and I wish both colleagues good luck and success in their new positions", says Dr Annette Winkler, Head of smart.
Dr Betker started his career at Daimler in 1996 – initially for four years as head of production planning at smart France. After holding various positions he returned to Hambach in October 2011 as plant manager.
"smartville": an innovative and particularly lean production concept
With more than 800 direct employees and around 800 employees at suppliers, the smart plant in Hambach, Lorraine, focuses on production of the smart fortwo. The assembly line is shaped like a "plus" symbol enabling to meet assembly and logistics requirements in an optimal way, thus ensuring efficient production processes. Since the production start of the new smart fortwo in June 2014, the third generation of this series is rolling off the assembly lines.
Worldwide success: smart is sold in 46 markets
Since the market launch in 1998 around 1.9 million smart fortwo have been sold. smart is now represented in 46 markets worldwide with the brand most recently introduced in Russia. Germany, Italy and China are the three largest markets. In 2016, the smart brand will bring many other models on the market worldwide, which will lead to further growth: Since March, customers are offered the new smart cabrio. The new BRABUS models fortwo and forfour will be at the dealers in summer. At the end of the year, the fully electric version of the current smart generation will follow.
