ROME – To find out what’s boiling at Volkswagen, just take a trip to Hannover, where the production of the new Multivan, the first with a plug-in hybrid engine, and of the new ID is about to be started at the production site of the German company. .Buzz, ready to debut in dealerships at the stroke of 2022. For the latter, a restyling of the factory itself is also becoming necessary, with modernizations capable of facing the new challenges of electrified production. However, the integration of the new Multivan into the production processes and the construction of the new plants for ID.Buzz were carried out without interrupting the activity of the Hanover factory – underline the technicians of the Wolfsburg brand – with normal production which continued in parallel. .
“For all of us in Hanover this phase has been very demanding – explains Josef Baumert, member of the board of directors for production and logistics of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.” It was a fantastic team effort, of which we can be very proud “. Production is now more efficient in Hanover, thanks also to the expansion of automation and the systematic implementation of the digitization strategy. For the bodyshop in the production process of the existing T6.1 model, the degree of automation is around 77%. but with the new Multivan it has risen to 93%. “The systematic improvement of productivity is an investment in the future – adds Baumert – and the supervisors deal with several phases in parallel from a single control station, staying in contact with the machines even through digital smart watch devices”.
But how will production at the Hanover plant essentially change? First of all, the assembly process will be made more efficient thanks to a new automated logistics system for the individual parts: the self-driving vehicles in the factory will bring the parts directly from the shops to the assembly lines. Not only. In less than four years the construction of T6.1, of Multivan, of ID. Buzz and ID. Buzz Cargo will be carried out on only two main lines. “It is an outstanding feat of both planning and logistics,” says Nassia Zdravkova, head of human resources. “To do this, thanks to training programs, we are taking our employees with us into the future in the transformation of the plant.”
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