Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-paper

fastvicar

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The real crisis seems to be the catch-22 of VW's global labor source. German workers cost a lot of money to keep and they can't work overtime. They are quite efficient, quality-driven & loyal, but they have a high price-tag. Compare that to the Mexican plant where the workers are quite affodable, yet they fail to see the long-term problems involved with producing a low-quality product. (I'm thinking mainly of the NB here)

So, if you were Bernd Pischetsrieder what would you do to solve quality/labor woes?
 

b0gman

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i say they should build a plant in this country. There is lots of land for cheap and there would likely be fewer union issues. I dont know how much worker "quality" plays in because so much of the assembly process is now automated
 

mavapa

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

Quality is built in at the engineering stage. Engineering includes manufacturing, not just the vehicle itself. If the engineering is good, the end result will be good.
 

fastvicar

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

b0gman,
Three letters would spell the doom for a VW plant on these shores: UAW. It might be different in 10 years, but not right now. It seems to be the EU/German labor laws that are really killing the manufacturers over there.

mavapa,
I agree to a point. As a manufacturer myself I have seen excellent designs fail in the field simply because steps were not taken to ensure quality before it left the factory. It was designed right & fab'd right, but if a bolt isn't torqued to spec during assembly it can kill any quality assurances further up the line. This is quite a different scenario than a poorly-designed window regulator.
 

Wireless

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

Actually, as someone who was Quality Engineering Manager and Test Engineering Manager at a large electronics manufacturing plant, I would also echo the importance of design. Not that manufacturing quality is not important, rather, they are normally easier problems to address and fix permanently. Poor design issues though can eventually escape through your test and quality assurance processes and fail in the field.

I therefore have no issue with VW building in Mexico, as long as they invested their money properly in the design of product and process.
 

TomB

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

Having owned two Mexico Jettas (2000 and 2002) and now 2 Germany Passats (2005), I have mixed feelings on the German quality.

I know this is blasphemy, but having seen both I have noted some issues with the Passat line that I did not see on the Mexico line.

Then again the TDI engines come from Germany only and the manual transmissions were from Argentina and the Czech Republic!
 

Bob_Fout

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

Engines are made in Poland too.
 

ofhs93

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

b0gman,
Three letters would spell the doom for a VW plant on these shores: UAW.
UAW would have absolutely nothing to do with VW's decision to build here or not. There is not 1 non Big 3 plant here in the US that is unionized as far as I know. The BMW and Mercedes plants in the south I KNOW are not UAW plants. I'm also pretty sure that the Japanese assembly plants here are non union as well. Don't let the unions fool you with thier loud rhetoric and deep pocket support of a certain political party. They wield VERY little "real world" power these days as compared to say 25 or 30 years ago. Any power they have now is directly conected to the political clout they have "bought" with thier financial support. The reality of a global economy and the need to compete on a global scale has whithered the unions that are supposed to represent the manufacturing sector. The only place where the unions are still enormously powerful are within the public school systems...and once again...it is due to the lack of competition in that particular "industry" that they are able to remain so strong. If vouchers were to be enacted on a national level for alternative schooling then you can bet that things would change there as well. But that's not something that is to be discussed here. Oh and BTW...I WORK in the public school system...so don't try to say I don't know what is going on
 

Kabin

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

UAW would have absolutely nothing to do with VW's decision to build here or not.
I agree. They would be more concerned with rising American healthcare costs which have been increasing in the double digits the last three years.
 

steve b

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

here in ky toyota builds camry's and pickup trucks. no uaw here but a quality product is produced.
let vw build a plant here in the US, it seems to be working for toyota
 

gearhead

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

Quality is built in at the engineering stage. Engineering includes manufacturing, not just the vehicle itself. If the engineering is good, the end result will be good.
Exactly. Good engineering also affects (or should affect) vendor sourcing decisions. I worked for a Tier I & Tier II supplier. It was interesting to see the design parameters from various manufacturers. Some were components destined for early failure.
 

BRUSSELS BELGIAN

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Well: the Mazda/Ford plant in Flat rock, Michigan is UAW. Some of the great cars that have been produced there: Ford Probe/ Mazda MX-6; Mazda 626; Mercury Cougar; the new Mazda6, and yes, the new Mustang. When the Japanese built the plant , they were very up front about the fact that they wanted to be a "good employer" in America and had no problem with a unionized workforce. Finally, I have several comments: first, all you folks who love low wage societies, please do me a favor and renounce your U.S. citizenship and go live there; second, American business makes far larger contributions to political campaigns than unions do; third, this has allowed corporations to control BOTH major parties, at least on economic issues, which is why the United States does not have anything resembling a healthy political system and why we have an "organ-grinder monkey" trying to impersonate a president; finally, since I did not initiate the political obiter dicta on this thread, I WILL be more than happy to end it...please take your anti-unionist drivel to another website, like maybe Bangladesh where you can exploit little girls with a $1.00 a day "salary."
 

DrewD

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Brussels,
I think I need to join your union so I can afford an 05 Passat and a Benz.
 

vwrobert51

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Re: Takeover threat looms at VW, says its CEO-pape

have all of you forgotten that VW did have a plant in U.S.? in westmorland PA. oh and also the sterling hights plant, was started by VW ,to be the secound assy plant in U.S. but what killed it was when they hired all the ex. U.S. unionized layed off workiers from mich. that turned the rabbit and the jetta into am american p.o.s, and when labor cost went up (unions) and sales dropped, and quality went down, thats when the lights went out.and VW almost packed up and went home, but thankfuly they started to build cars for u.s at pebula mex. and went back to german basic designes, they came back, yeh we still have some quality issues, but dont we all? even toyota has quality issues, and as i have said before, any car will last a long time. its life depends on how the owner takes care of the car, no car will last long if its run into the ground,
 
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