Wolfsburg comes out on top

This year's Harbour Report praises the press shop at Volkswagen‘s Wolfsburg plant, havingtaken some top positions and proved its outstanding performance.

When it comes to the Harbour Report, issued by US management consultancy Oliver Wyman, many automakers are more than happy to keep quiet about their rankings, often claiming its contents are "confdential" as an excuse for revealing fugures.

 But VW wants to be seen in a good light at the moment, so any ‘good‘ news is good news.

The Habour Report compares and assesses a number of items including the press shops of all the world's key automakers. It also undertakes plant-by-plant assessments. In this study a comparson of "the most productive" automotive manufacturers is produced. The current report compares 124 press shops of 18 different automakers.

Thomas Ulbrich, member of the board of management of the Volkswagen brand responsible for production: "In view of its size and significance in the production of parts for the high-volume models of the Volkswagen brand, the Wolfsburg press shop plays a key role within the Group. The outstanding results obtained in the Harbour Reports confirm the successful development of the Wolfsburg press shop."

Jens Herrmann, Wolfsburg plant manager, said: "Since it was commissioned four years ago, our large-format press has already taken first place in the Harbour Report three times. This result bears witness to the quality and precision of the Wolfsburg plant."

Large-format press line 500 in Hall 1A took first place in the category of transfer XL presses. The Wolfsburg press shop also performed very well in the category of progressive die. Press line 810 in Hall 2 once again took second place.

Markus Lange, manager of the press shop, is equally pleased about the very good performance of the press shop  in fact, he would be disappointed if it wasn’t.

"Once again, our highly motivated team has been a key factor in winning these awards," he said, proudly.

Every day, the Wolfsburg press shop processes some 2,600 metric tons of steel sheet and produces almost half a million body parts. These parts are used for the models Golf, Golf Sportsvan, Touran and Tiguan as well as for the modular transverse toolkit (MQB) platform at 20 other plants. 2,000 people are employed in the Volkswagen Group's largest and oldest press shop