Israel Weapons Industries moves into its new facility south of Tel Aviv
After years of designing and planning the new facility hosting Israel Weapons Industries, the Israeli champion small arms manufacturer, is ready, started production and will become fully operational soon
A State-owned company until 2005, when it was split from Israel Military Industries and privatised under the current name, becoming part of the SK Group, IWI remained in its original premises for less than 20 years. However, it was known since a long time that it should have moved from the old facility, into a new one of its property.
This is happening now; the shift to the new premises was already moved to the right, and it was further delayed due to the October 7th events. In mid-March EDR On-Line could visit the new facility, located in Kiryat-Gat, south of Tel Aviv and around 30 km off Gaza.
“It took us a lot of time to design this facility to fully support our needs,” a senior management member said, underlining the aim of being totally independent in what is the company core business, the production of small arms.
IWI is acquiring a set of wholly new automatic machinery, which will allow production to run 24/7, “as there is no law that impedes machines to work round the clock, all days, which is of course not feasible with our employees,” the company official explained. While the old facility was slightly north of Tel Aviv, and the driving time from there is around one hour, most of the workforce remained loyal to IWI and is actively taking part in the move, machinery still seen coming from the north during our visit.
Another issue in terms of manpower, currently some 550 employees are part of IWI, is the current conflict, over 100 personnel wearing the uniform, generating a shortage of people at the company. It is not exceptional to see people in uniform coming to work once finished his or her daily duty, and on the day of the attack, Saturday October 7th, EDR On-Line understood that all personnel converged to the old factory knowing well that the Army would need support.
At the new IWI facility all key weapons components are produced, such as barrels, bolts, bolt carriers, receivers, and so on. Polymer elements are subcontracted to an Israeli company which facility is around one hour away from Kiryat-Gat. Should a peak in production be required, IWI has a supply line capable to produce for example bolt and receivers. We should not forget PLR Systems Pvt Ltd, PLR in short, the joint venture between Adani Group of India and IWI, which can obviously become a dual source should the need arise.
However, the new land was acquired with considerable growth potential. Currently the new IWI facility has a 23,000 m2 covered area, buildings covering less than 50% of the overall terrain. Anyway, once the move from Ramat HaSharon to Kiryat-Gat will be completed, the new factory will be capable to ensure an output 40% greater than the original facility.
While many machines were moved from the former facility into the new one, IWI invested heavily on new machinery to improve quality and production capacity. The barrel department, one of the key areas in a small arms factory, is receiving some of them, one being a new honing machine that allows to further improve the quality of the final surface texture. According to company experts, the Arad assault rifle barrel life is currently guaranteed for 15,000 rounds, however it is forecasted that this limit might be raised thanks to a further enhancement of the finishing process. All IWI rifle barrels are obtained by hammering.
Production is carried out on two lines. One is mostly robotised and works along the one-piece flow concept. Currently IWI is still finishing to set it up, but in the near future robots will run from one machine to the other carrying components along the production flow.
The second production line is more traditional, although this does not mean it is not equipped with modern machinery, such one that makes the work of three different machines. While the automated line is used for systems to be produced in big numbers, the second line allows greater flexibility and is used for smaller number productions, as it allows an easier shift from one product to another, EDR On-Line understood.
A major shift will soon happen in the quality control process; workers are already performing a first quality test by themselves, however their product is then sent to the quality control room for a further check. In the near future IWI will adopt a check-while-process concept, which according to the company will further reduce waste and increase productivity.
Another key factor for improving quality is that the new facility is wholly air conditioned, temperature and humidity being kept under control, which was not the case in the previous factory.
Of course, also this will be obtainable as soon as the move from Ramat HaSharon to Kiryat-Gat will be completed, as currently the main doors are often open to allow trucks to unload incoming machinery.
According to the production manager the problem generated by moving the factory while part of the workforce is called-up in the military reserve led to plan a 1-2 month halt in production. “In fact, we managed to stop production for less than one week, some machines being already in the production cycle a couple of days after arrival,” he told EDR On-Line while redirecting a fork-lift that unloaded a machine not exactly at the right place.
IWI does all coating treatments in-house, a new degreaser ensuring further improvement to the chroming process. As for assembly, different lines are already operational, production rates remaining confidential. No sign of the Arbel-equipped weapons was visible: for the time being these are assembled in a restricted area and will be moved to the standard assembly line once they will enter mass-production.
Each single weapon is tested in the company inside range, which is located two levels under the production area. Six rooms allow conducting quality and insurance tests, shooting in the water, tests varying according to the type of weapon. Assault rifles then go to the 100 metres range for accuracy tests; at the moment of EDR On-Line visit this range was still under construction. According to information gathered it will be equipped with a series of top-notch target systems that will also allow complex demonstrations without leaving the Kiryat-Gat premises. The only weapons that are tested outside the new facility are sniper rifles, which need a 500 metres range.
The final stage of our visit was the warehouse. Here 85% of the components needed to assembly an IWI product are stored in a Modula automated warehouse, which constitutes a buffer for components coming from the production line and from those coming from subcontractors. The room also hosts the semi-automatic warehouse where finished products are kept awaiting to be delivered to customers. However, due to the current situation in Israel, “we are working following the just-in-time concept,” the production manager told EDR On-Line, and in fact not many boxes could be seen on the racks of the new IWI storage area.
Photos courtesy IWI
