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settembre 23, 2016 - Porsche

Team Spirit with Guaranteed Quality

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

Stefan Fuhrmann deftly slips on a white woolen glove. Not because of the ambient temperature—that is a constant 22 degrees Celsius at his workplace in the MSB bodyworks at the #porsche plant in Leipzig—but to augment his sense of touch. He slowly traces the contour of an unpainted sheet of metal in front of him with his right hand and draws a few rings on it with chalk. Fuhrmann’s chalk markings mean: scratches, dents, flaws. “Such rough irregularities as the ones on this piece are naturally only used for demonstration purposes,” explains an employee from the department of quality control for purchased / pressed components (PLG-QK1). In their everyday work, the deviations from the norm that he and his colleagues are called upon to notice are generally much less conspicuous.

“When a press exerts 1,000 tons of pressure on a part,” says Fuhrmann, “even a human hair would be visible on it.” At least for specially trained employees such as him—after all, recognizing irregularities of just a hundredth of a millimeter takes years of training. Not even state-of-theart scanners, which are also used in #leipzig, could detect such minuscule production flaws,” adds Dr. Andreas Schmidt. The Director of Quality at the #leipzig location (PLG-Q) therefore regards this type of manual inspection of vehicle components as something like the blue-ribbon discipline.

In a certain respect, Fuhrmann and his colleagues are a perfect example of what quality means at #porsche, be it in #leipzig or any of the other company locations: looking at things with a more concentrated focus than others, and examining every little detail down to the very foundation. “We want to know and understand everything as exactly as possible. And we don’t make exceptions,” emphasizes Frank Moser, Director of #corporate Quality at #porsche (GQ). And as Executive Board member for Production Albrecht Reimold accentuates: “Every #porsche is a demonstration of our comprehensive philosophy of quality—not only within production and development, but throughout every department of the company.”

Andreas Schmidt: “Quality is not a coincidence — it’s painstaking teamwork”

The quality process is steered centrally, but implemented in a decentralized manner in the individual units and departments—typical to #porsche, but a rarity in the automotive industry. In #leipzig, where currently more than 25 model variants with 20 engine variants are produced on one line, some 400 employees are directly involved in quality control. “It is extremely important, however, that every employee has an understanding of the issue,” emphasizes Andreas Schmidt. “Quality, after all, is not a coincidence—it’s painstaking teamwork.”

The point is reiterated by Thomas Kanz, Chairman of the Works Council at #porsche #leipzig: “That quality awareness is practiced to a very high degree in the teams. This is where the supplier/ customer principle is being perfected. In other words: Each team gives the subsequent team its product in optimal quality.” This system, he says, extends throughout the entire production chain. “In my previous role as a quality leader,” says Kanz, “it was my job to lend support to this fundamental principle. Because planning, employees working on the product, and quality control are intertwined, we’ve been able to satisfy the demanding quality standards expected of our plant in the past. Maintaining and further improving this standard is the goal shared by everyone here.”

The Quality Center is a key prerequisite

This focus on quality is particularly evident in the brand-new #leipzig Quality Center (QC) — and not just because of the name. The roughly 6,000 square meter building opened in June. Investment: €15 million, plus furnishings. The center employs 150 staff, roughly 30 of whom were employed during the latest expansion. Particularly in the run-up to series production of new vehicles—like for the #panamera, the second generation of which will be manufactured in #leipzig and which celebrated its world premiere in late June—the Quality Center is a key prerequisite for enabling the highest degree of perfection from the outset.

Beyond design and technology, after all, customers also place great importance on fine craftsmanship, the feel of the car, the tangible quality of each element. This “sensual quality” is, alongside the emotional, the functional, and the service quality, a pillar of the #porsche quality philosophy—and one of the reasons that #porsche has claimed a perennial spot in the upper ranks of the renowned international quality rankings of the J.D. Power market research institute. This annual study involves surveying customers in the US and China in relation to the quality of their new vehicles. The #leipzig built Macan received the “Highest Initial Quality— Compact Premium SUV” distinction in its first year of full availability in 2015, and repeated this feat in 2016.

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