Honda in Swindon now employs around 4,300 staff and uses some of the world's most advanced production processes.

But its beginnings were a bit more humble.

In 1985, the factory only comprised a pre-delivery centre which was tasked with checking the the quality of work completed by car manufacturer Rover. The rival firm was then producing two of the Honda models as part of a joint operation.

Since then, around £1.15 billion has been invested in the site, resulting in the construction of cars there.

The plant now builds cars for the UK and European markets and more recently started building vehicles for the United States and Japan.

Today, a silver Honda CR-V destined for the United States rolled off the production line, becoming the millionth car produced at the plant.

Minoru Harada, president of Honda in Europe, who was present at the event alongside government officials, said: "I am proud to say that the cars in Swindon are recognised as the best in their class wherever they are sold and their quality is a match for that of our other models built anywhere in the world."

The first car plant was built in 1992, and could manufacture up to 550 cars per day. In 2001, production began in a second plant with the capability of producing around 350 cars per day, bringing production totals up to nearly 1,000 each day.

Last year, nearly 177,000 cars rolled off the line and the firm hopes to build 190,000 this year. Of that total roughly 65 per cent will be exported outside the UK.

Currently, three car models are being built in the factory the Honda CR-V four-wheel drive and both the three-door and five-door Civic hatchback.

Aside from the car and engine plants, Swindon is also home to a secret research and development facility as well as engineering logistics and parts services.

Mike Godfrey, chief engineer of corporate planning, said: "Spending £1.15 billion in the town shows how much long-term commitment the firm has in Swindon. Honda employs 9,000 associates across Europe, and nearly half of those are here in Swindon."

Associates, as the staff are called in the plant, are mainly from the Swindon area.

They work a 37-hour week. Car production is undertaken in two shifts. The first runs from 6am to 2.20pm then a second from 3.30pm to 10pm or midnight.

No production takes place at weekends. Saturdays are usually used for maintenance of the hundreds of machines and the multi-million pound robots.

Engine Plant

The engine plant was the first Honda production facility to be built in Swindon. The plant has been open for 12 years and has produced around 1.5 million engines. Each engine takes around 150 minutes to build.

Grant McPherson, who lives near Fairford, is manager of the engine plant and helps to train new recruits.

He said: "There is never a dull moment in here. There are always new challenges and we learn so much about how the engine works, how it performs and the technologies that go into them."

The engine plant also produces the gearbox and highly complicated gearing components. The machined engine blocks, cylinder heads and clutch and transmission cases meet with the other engine components for the final assembly process. Many engines are then stored for later retrieval.

The engines are carefully checked by quality control, but are not started up.

Pressing and Welding

Every car starts life as nothing more than sheets of steel. These sheets are fed into large presses with casts shaped into a particular body panel, like a door, bonnet roof and bodies.

The panels are then moved into the weld shop, where the basic body of the car is assembled on a jig.

Both robots and associates are used in the weld process, but robots do most of the job. The robots undertake thousands of small spot-welds, sending sparks high into the air.

Andy Hatter, administrative co-ordinator at the plant, is a former Barclays bank manager who has been at Honda for two and a half years.

He said: "There are more than 2,300 spot welds on each car. Each weld is stronger than the metal itself.

"Each weld is then checked carefully for quality, this is done by people with screwdrivers, who attempt to break the weld."

Although the robots are agile, they cannot always reach all parts of the car. A small team of skilled welders in a green-windowed room weld the places the robots cannot reach.

Painting

Once the cars have left the weld shop they are moved into the paint shop.

Here, the car bodies, called whites, are carefully cleaned using strong water jets to ensure that any grease, oil or metal fragments do not spoil the paint.

No fewer than six separate layers of water-based paint are sprayed on each car along with an effective anti-corrosion paint.

In a form of electrolysis, the car is charged with negatively charged particles and then lowered into a tank containing a positively charged liquid, which removes any impurities from the car body.

Andy Hatter said: "The paint area has to be kept at a constant humidity and temperature. We tend to use water-based paints, as these are much more friendly to the environment.

"Any waste water is carried away into waste treatment tanks outside the factory."

The cars are then literally cooked in large flash ovens to help the paint dry quickly and allow the production to move into the main assembly hall.

Assembly Floor

Assembly sees each car make the transition from being a steel shell to becoming a driveable vehicle.

Cars are built in batches by both colour and model code. During our visit, a batch of black Honda three-door Civic Type-R was rolling off the line destined for the American market.

Around two associates work on each car, installing seats, the dashboard and other internal fittings .

Eddie Kembery, of Wanborough, is divisional manager and head of both assembly plants and has worked at Honda for seven years. He said: "We don't consider any part of the factory more important than another we all work as a team, and if one part of the process is delayed then that could affect the rest of the factory.

"All the staff are expected to be able to take-on someone else's task. If we're short one-day then people who work in the offices come down and play their part. Each process in the plant has a visual aid sheet explaining how to do each job."

The complete cars roll off the line, and for the first-time the engine is fired up. Each part of the car is checked by quality control looking for dents in the panels or looking for loose fittings.

The cars are then driven on a high speed test on Honda's test track and return to parking areas at a slower speed, over six different surfaces, allowing the driver to listen out for squeaks and other strange noises.