Germany slowly shows signs of normalcy from COVID-19, as Volkswagen resumes production at its Wolfsburg plant, with 8,000 employees returning on day one. By Tanvi Jain
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The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand recently resumed vehicle production at its Wolfsburg plant, at an early shift of 6:30 am. Initially, Golf production will re–commence on a one-shift basis — with reduced capacity and longer cycle times. The first day of the plant’s reopening witnessed a return of some 8,000 employees to the production halls.
Production of the Volkswagen Tiguan and Touran models, as well as the SEAT Tarraco, began on April 29. Multi-shift operations are likely to resume in the coming week. Moreover, some 2,600 suppliers, mostly located in Germany, also resumed production for Volkswagen’s main plant, with expanded measures to protect the health of the workforce.
The Wolfsburg plant is looking forward to building some 1,400 vehicles by the end of the first week, and as the multi-shift operation resumes in the following week, it’s eyeing to ramp up the production by over 6,000 vehicles. Moreover, some 70 per cent of dealerships have already reopened for business.
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“Step-by-step resumption of production is an important signal for the workforce, dealerships, suppliers and the wider economy. Additional momentum is needed to stimulate demand in Germany and throughout Europe so that production volumes can be successively increased,” Ralf Brandstätter, Chief Operating Officer of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, said.
“The priority given to protecting the health of employees is exemplary. The Works Council and Board of Management have jointly developed a concept that is in a class of its own,” added Lower Saxony’s Minister-President Stephan Weil.
“For the Works Council, the health of our colleagues has absolute priority when production resumes. To that end, we have concluded a general works agreement with some 100 health protection measures,” Bernd Osterloh, Chairman of the Group and General Works Council, further stated.
Some key points of the 100-point plan include — regular temperature check of employees at home, and then going through a health checklist before leaving work, preferably already dressed in their workwear, setting up of walkway diversions to avoid contacts, distance markers on floors to act as guides for walking and for keeping distances during meetings, covering of mouth and especially in areas where it’s not possible to maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 metres.
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Some are even using mobile plexiglass partitions. Moreover, they are also making sure that material is no longer transferred from employee to employee, but is placed in containers. The teams are being given more time to clean their tools. The cleaning frequency for washrooms and team rooms is being intensified, and several additional handwashing facilities are being installed throughout the plant. The company is converting conference rooms into office spaces, flextime is being extended in offices and, work from home option is being continued wherever possible.
Further, to maximise information and awareness, over 8,000 posters are on display at the Wolfsburg plant alone. Employees have also been given a booklet containing detailed information on the precautionary measures. Volkswagen has shared this 100-point plan with its over 40,000 suppliers and logistics partners throughout the world.
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Wolfsburg is the second of the Volkswagen brand’s vehicle plants in Germany after Zwickau, to resume production following the halt since mid-March. Production in Bratislava, Slovakia, already began last week, and the ramp-up is in line with the current availability of parts given the continuing impact of the pandemic, government requirements in Germany and Europe, the development of sales markets and the resulting modes of operation of the plants.
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