Complex testing and measurement systems, control stations along the entire assembly line, painstaking training on employees and team leaders, close dialogue with suppliers. Alfa Romeo with the new Tonale suv is all about quality. The ceo Jean-Philippe Imparato reiterates this without making discounts: “We started from a situation of low reputation on quality, the challenge is to bring Pomigliano to levels of excellence”.
The new C-suv of the Biscione, which was born on the platform of the Jeep Compass, has to compete with a very challenging premium sector. The strategy adopted by the Italian-French manager chosen by the CEO of Stellantis Carlos Tavares is clear: more than the volumes of Alfa Romeo, what counts is the value that the brand will be able to acquire in the field. For this reason, the theme of quality becomes the central point of the project which assigned the industrial mission of hosting a second production line dedicated to Alfa Romeo to Giambattisca Vico.
An area for final assembly of 40 thousand square meters, 350 employees per shift at full capacity and a production capacity of 23 cars per hour, with these numbers Pomigliano is preparing for the production increase in view of the market launch of the new model. in June, with the plug-in version scheduled for September. “We will be happy if we sell 20,000 Alfa Romeo Tonales in the second half of the year” predicts Imparato, who goes even further: “With the launch of the B-suv in 2024, the volumes of Alfa Romeo, which thinks about medium-term objectives , reach 80-100 thousand cars on the market per year.
Quality at the center therefore. Pomigliano has implemented the Metrology Center focused on the geometry of the body and components assembled with precision equipment at 7 hundredths of a millimeter, focused on the premium sector. Another distinctive element of the quality process is the Master cubing, the “perfect” version of the car, without tolerances, which acts as a reference point for aligning the individual components before going to series production.
Today Pomigliano drives with a production of 15 cars per day, the assembly phase is being finalized to reach, when fully operational, a daily production of 350 cars with an organization over two shifts. Looking ahead in 2022, production will be able to fluctuate between 40 and 70 thousand units, “the market will decide”, says Imparato.