The Grand Tour of German Automotive—Audi Ingolstadt

Audi is a maker of higher-end vehicles and part of the Volkswagen group. As part of my Grand Tour of German Automotive, I visited their plants in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. This first blog post looks at their main plant in Ingolstadt. My next blog post looks at the second plant in Neckarsulm.

Disclaimer: The following is based on my personal observations and opinions and may not be accurate or correct. It is based on publicly available information and what I observed during public tours, and when I observed it. The observations may differ at a different time and place.

Audi

In 1932, four car companies—DKW, Horch, Wanderer, and Audi—decided to merge into eventually Audi. Hence, the four rings on the logo symbolize these four companies. When Germany was divided after the war, the company relocated to Ingolstadt, where they still have their headquarters. Their former plant in Zwickau was making the East German Trabant. In 1958, Daimler Benz took a controlling 87% share, but the (back then) small two-stroke cars were a bad fit for their portfolio. In 1964, Volkswagen acquired a majority share. A major motorbike brand, NSU, also merged with Audi in 1969. After the reunification, they also got their plant in Zwickau back (or, what was left of it).

Audi managed a successful re-branding in the ’90s. I still remember that, when I left Germany for the United States and Japan, Audi was a boring brand for old people. When I came back after ten years, to my surprise, Audi was a fashionable luxury car for young people. That was quite a successful shift of their target market.

In Germany, Audi has two (and a half) plants: the main plant in Ingolstadt in Bavaria, the former NSU plant in Neckarsulm, Baden Württemberg, and they share their Zwickau plant with the Volkswagen brand. I visited Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, and the plants were somewhat similar, albeit Ingolstadt is twice the size. But Neckarsulm is proud that it produces more variants. Both plants have a long history, which means both have no space, as the towns grew around them during history. Hence, both plants manufacture on multiple floors. Both also have multiple final assembly lines. In both cases, the cleanliness was okay, but less than at Porsche and BMW.

Audi Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is the headquarters of Audi. Established in 1959, around 40 000 workers produce around 2500 cars per day in three shifts. The early and the late shift (6:00–14:00 and 14:00–22:00) alternate, but the night shift (22:00–6:00) is continuously a night shift, as it pays more money.

The plant has three final assembly lines. Line 1 makes the A4 Avant and A4 Sportback. Line 2 produces the A4, A4 Avant, and A3. From line 3 come the A3 and Q2. The second line is more flexible and can, if needed, free capacity for the first and third line. During my tour we visited the third line.

Press Shop & Body Shop

We visited both the press shop and the body shop. I find press shops always impressive, when the whole floor shakes with a press coming down. Their changeover time from one press tool to the next takes fifteen minutes, which is not bad, albeit Toyota and BMW with three minutes are better.

The body shop merges lots of sheet metal using around 5000 spot welds per car. Initially the parts are produced in cells, but are then welded in different body lines. If there is no employee nearby, the lights are dimmed or off. Thirty minutes of maintenance is allocated per shift.

Paint Shop

We did not visit the paint shop, which is normal, since any contamination like a hair or so can impact quality. (Only BMW Munich had a tour of the paint shop, albeit we were separated from the actual painting by plastic sheets—which I much prefer.) At Audi Ingolstadt, 2100 employees paint 2180 bodies per day in 22 standard colors. Afterwards, the car is 11kg heavier due to the paint and fillers.

A3 and Q2 Assembly Line

This is one of three assembly lines in Ingolstadt. They produce the popular A3 and the small SUV Q2. The assembly line has 153 stations in six segments, albeit I have not seen all of them. The segments I have seen used a moving platform and a hanging rail for under body work. A few AGVs supplied material, but there were more milk runs than AGVs.

The line runs at a comparatively fast takt of 87 seconds per car. Groups of ten employees including their group leader are in charge of three to four stations. According to my estimate of the percentage of the time the worker adds value, the Ingolstadt plant was at 38% a bit less effective than the one in Neckarsulm with 43%, despite Neckarsulm having a much slower takt of twelve minutes. Compared with other plants in Germany, the share of value added time was on the lower end. Many operations also felt inefficient, and the workers had to spend a lot of time preparing and moving items, and much less actually assembling them.

For example, the wheel assembly in many other plants requires the employee merely to place the wheel and then the screwing machine. In Ingolstadt, the employee has to get each screw and screw in all screws at every wheel separately using a handheld cordless screwdriver. Afterwards, he places a larger tool that tightens all screws. For me, this is extra effort that is, in other plants, more automated. The visual management, however, was okay, as the larger tool had a red light that turned green when the torque on all screws was good. The guide also said that inserting the seats into the car through the doors was tricky and needs much practice. Well, at Toyota, they would have a standard for that. But the guide was probably just talking, and Audi probably has proper work instructions on how to get the seats into the cars (I hope).

They do have a pilot in Ingolstadt where the workers log into their work stations, and the station knows automatically, e.g., how tall the worker is. The position of the car is then adjusted slightly depending on the height of the worker and the resulting ideal ergonomic working height.

The plant also felt tighter, maybe because of the long history of the plant. Many logistic roads were quite narrow, and forklifts and milk runs could move in only one direction. This lack of space was particularly visible at the end of the line, where the cars drive off the line (or in our case, one car being towed… but that happens. Sometimes…). Due to a small hiccup in the subsequent quality control, the drivers were having problems finding parking spots at the end of the line, and hectic driving and parking ensued. One (pedestrian) worker felt the need to remind a (wheeled) worker of the speed limit of walking speed. But the drivers did know how to parallel park in tight spots… I counted eight cars parked at the end of the line, and the same again at an overflow parking lot twenty meters down where they had space.

As always, many thanks to the companies that open their doors and permit visits to the general public. In my next post I will look at their second, smaller plant in Neckarsulm. Now, go out, make sure your people have the space to work properly, and organize your industry!

PS: Many thanks to Audi for offering tours through their plants to the public!