KEEPING THE PORTFOLIO PROFITABLE
Could you elaborate on how this strat- engineering and production?
A. The more you can use the same parts across multiple vehicles, the fewer engi- neering hours need to be expended on all those vehicles, the less testing and validation needs to be done, and the less expensive the hardware you have to build. You will want to reinvest some of those savings to insulate yourself to any quality risk when rolling out in bigger volumes around the globe.
With this, you will achieve a higher level of quality from the beginning. In addition, all the knowledge you gained from the the following model, leading to launches Faster launches with fewer interruptions mean more volume arriving faster at the dealers and in customers’ hands, thus gen-
Common parts also mean less tooling variance and more commonality across factories around the world. Besides the regular scale effects, a vendor’s tooling can be simply copied, instead of designing and building a new tool for a different part.
We call the component set our MQB— Modularer Querbaukasten, German for modular transverse matrix. It enables not - ferent segments, but also VW’s modular production system, which leads to facto- ries with the highest level of commonality
In future, all factories around the globe will be almost the same. Again, this saves cost, ensures top quality, and makes us very fast in reacting to changing market demands.
All this allows VW and the VW Group to invest in niche models alongside the core vehicles and to tailor the vehicles to what each market needs. The new Passat, with wheelbase for the U.S., is certainly a very good example of a product that’s tailored to the market.
Q. Volkswagen has a global reputation for engineering leadership and views engineering excellence as a capstone of its areas for innovation?
A. Most importantly, we brainstorm with our staff at every level and in every area of the company in order to improve our products and the driving experi- ence for our customers. We conduct a large number of drives with the Board of Management in both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, as well as in all markets in all stages of the development. New innovations will be reviewed, tested, and discussed very early. Continuous benchmarking is an important tool as well.
Here in the U.S., we have established the Electronics Research Laboratory in San Francisco, which focuses on identifying and evaluating innovations for all our brands. Besides internal research, we con- tinuously work closely with our vendors as a secondary source of innovation. It’s important to have a close relationship, because they bear expertise in areas that we do not consider our core business. They can give you insights to innovations that may be happening outside your organiza- tion. If you give your employees and your partners a chance to work together early in the vehicle development process, then you will be able to leverage those relation- ships by getting early access to innovations. It’s key that you must be a reliable partner so that vendors are really willing to dis- close their best insights to you.
Q. - tant measure of Volkswagen’s success, but by no means the only one. What are your performance in the marketplace?
A. Our Mach 18 strategy states that Volk- swagen wants to be: a top employer; the most environmentally responsible auto- maker; the leader in quality and customer satisfaction; and we want to have the high- est returns for a volume automaker. Yes, we are also aiming to produce more than 10 million vehicles a year by 2018. But volume alone isn’t the only measure of a company’s true success. We like to think of VW as a volume brand with a premium market share in all the main markets. In on the street among every 100 new ones in order to be relevant and visible.
It is clear to us that truly credible global leadership cannot be achieved without even if it looks possible from a pure sales volume point of view. Success is especially important in the U.S., where vehicle mass production was invented by Henry Ford and where VW has under- performed over the years; everyone in top management here and in Germany is very eager to succeed.
Q. The Army has put a great deal of effort into incorporating Soldiers’ feed- back into the design of their equipment, early and often in the development pro- cess. Like Volkswagen customers, Soldiers know what will work and won’t work on connect with the public and encourage customer input? What methods have proven most productive for the company?
A. We interact with our customers on many levels. We do market research and
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