Helmut Stettner, Plant Director at Audi’s site in Neckarsulm: “We are delighted to win the Lean Award, which is recognition of our stable and lean processes. We are continually optimizing our operations on the way to the intelligent factory of the future – the smart factory. Together with our employees, we work out solutions that improve our quality and productivity on a sustained basis, and which help us to meet the challenges of the future.”
Audi Neckarsulm is the most complex plant in the Volkswagen Group, and processes more than 56,000 components from approximately 1,200 suppliers all over the world. The experts in Neckarsulm can master this diversity only by means of secure and efficient routines. The plant therefore manufactures in accordance with the Audi Production System along the entire process chain. This is now being developed into a holistic corporate system. “With it, we interpret and define “lean” anew,” says Dieter Braun, Head of Production Control and Plant Logistics at Audi Neckarsulm. “By ideally combining the lean principles of the Audi Production System with the opportunities of digitization, we are moving to the next level of productivity. Big data and the advantages of data connectivity are key factors here.”
The jury particularly praised the further developed string-of-pearls principle. Dr. Werner Geiger, Chief Executive of Agamus Consult: “Of the many solutions for more efficiency at the Audi plant in Neckarsulm, the string-of-pearls methodology is the highlight.
With the further developed string of pearls, the plant manages to better control the time spreads in assembly caused by the high diversity of derivatives and equipment combinations. Satisfied employees and higher quality and productivity are the measurable result.”
From 1.93 billion possibilities, an algorithm calculates the best sequence for each assembly line. In this way, a binding and exact car-order sequence is determined six days in advance – the string-of-pearls principle. The algorithm uses the information on ordered cars with consideration of the resulting work for the employees at all workplaces, so that they are optimally deployed.
Automobil Produktion and Agamus Consult are now for the eleventh time presenting their awards to particularly efficient plants and companies in Europe that are competitive in terms of lean production and management systems. “Learning from the best” is the award’s motto.