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Lean Production at Volkswagen

Volkswagen implemented lean production principles at its Wolfsburg plant to increase productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness. Lean production optimizes processes by eliminating unnecessary steps and distances to save time and boost value creation. This includes optimal material handling, ergonomic workstations, and visual cues like differently colored racks to simplify sorting. Employees continuously improve processes. With lean production, Volkswagen has increased productivity 30% by 2025 and secured the plant's future in highly efficient volume production, giving it a competitive edge.

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Sumeth Daluwatta
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904 views2 pages

Lean Production at Volkswagen

Volkswagen implemented lean production principles at its Wolfsburg plant to increase productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness. Lean production optimizes processes by eliminating unnecessary steps and distances to save time and boost value creation. This includes optimal material handling, ergonomic workstations, and visual cues like differently colored racks to simplify sorting. Employees continuously improve processes. With lean production, Volkswagen has increased productivity 30% by 2025 and secured the plant's future in highly efficient volume production, giving it a competitive edge.

Uploaded by

Sumeth Daluwatta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lean Production at Volkswagen

Source: BBC News

Up to 3,500 cars a day, more than 62,000 workers and an area the size of Gibraltar –
everything must run like clockwork to keep production running smoothly at the Volkswagen
plant in Wolfsburg. Carefully coordinated processes have been designed down to the very
smallest detail and keep production moving smoothly 24 hours a day. Productivity and
efficiency play a key role in this operation. 

Volkswagen plans to become leaner and fitter in the future – it’s an idea called “lean
production.” For the advances it has made to produce vehicles more efficiently, the
Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg has won the Automotive Lean Production Award in 2018 as
best manufacturer for the first time. During a tour of production, Dr. Stefan Loth, the
director of the Wolfsburg plant, talked about the key features of lean production as outlined
below.

The main aim of lean production is to optimize processes and, thus, to increase productivity and
efficiency. How? “A company is lean when it acts efficiently and eliminates unnecessary distances
and process steps. This saves time, boosts value creation and prevents stressful situations from
occurring,” plant director Loth says. A large number of lean examples can be seen on the assembly
lines of the lean path. Simple steps are all it takes to “slim down” work processes. This can include
optimal handling of materials, tools that are perfectly designed for the particular job site and
ergonomic workstations.

During the tour through production, plant director Loth stops at selected stations along the
lean path. More than 2,000 Golf models, including all variants, are assembled each day in
the production hall. Thousands and thousands of parts are used in the process. Employees
continuously replenish materials on the production lines. The process has already been
“slimmed down” here. 

A storage site is located between two lines. Material containers in so-called shooter racks
are delivered here with the help of logistics trains. Workers place the containers to the left
and right of the assembly line. The racks used to all look the same, a practice that
occasionally resulted in a mix-up during the sorting process – particularly when speed was
required. “We are now doing things much ‘leaner’: We are now using different rack heights
and colours – blue for one line and yellow for the other line. They have really simplified the
sorting job,” Loth says. The empty material containers are quickly replaced by full ones.

Finally, “lean” serves as a lever for highly efficient volume production and creates a major
competitive edge for Volkswagen. In the process, employees do not have to learn new work steps.
Ergonomic assembly seats make it easier to work on the vehicle. Numbering systems and positioning
guides support the screwing process. Carts that roll along the line are used to carry heavy loads.
Stefan Loth says the Wolfsburg workforce has become big boosters of the “lean” process: “Our
workers come up with ideas for many ‘lean’ improvements in production. Something that a planner
thinks will make sense may not always work so well in the real world.”
On the basis of the Pact of the Future, Volkswagen has formulated important goals that are
supported by all sides. The main plant in Wolfsburg is setting the pace in the company’s push to
boost productivity throughout the Group by 30% by 2025. The productivity goals were even
exceeded in the first year. With the PQM strategy, the plant in Wolfsburg is focusing on productivity,
quality and team performance.

The objective is more and more efficient volume production that will secure the production site and
its future. Today, up to 3,500 vehicles roll off the assembly line in a three-shift operation, including
Golf, Tiguan and Touran models. The main plant also recently began to produce the model of
another Group brand – the SEAT Tarraco. This change represents an important step toward multi-
brand production and long-range competitiveness.

1. To what extent has Lean production allowed Volkswagen to become more competitive in the
car industry? (15)

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