Le 10 priorità per VW.

3 January 2007| Source: just-auto.com editorial team

According to leading German automotive industry publication, Automobil Industrie, VW group CEO Martin Winterkorn has a 10-point list of priorities, which gives some insight in to future demands that may be placed on suppliers.

In the short-term there will be:

1) a restructuring of the brands into a premium group and a volume group. This has been much publicised. The premium group will consist of Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini, while the volume group will consist of Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda. Winterkorn will appoint group wide heads of development, production and sales to avoid expensive duplication of work and to identify unexploited synergies;

2) a focus on the low –end models to take-up the fight with Dacia, Fiat, Tata, SAIC etc;

3) process optimisation in the product development process, and concrete measures to reach latest ForMotion plus targets, which call for a EUR4bn improvement in pre-tax profit in 2008 versus 2004 at the group level;

4) exhaustive identification of unutilised synergies across the group. Platforms, engines and modules will be modified to support this, and in some cases completely redeveloped.

In the medium-term, Automobil Industrie suggested Winterkorn will focus on three further points:

5) more effective and efficient product development with regards to time and cost with a focus on terms such as time to market, time-to-customer and value for money;

6) international realignment, particularly in Latin America, China and India;

7) reduced complexity as a core component of cost-reduction.

Long-term, according to the magazine, Winterkorn will be aiming for:

8) radical innovations to improve competitiveness, such as alternative powertrains; intelligent platform strategies, new materials;

9) faster decision-making processes – at all levels ;

10) involving suppliers more closely in the innovation process ie aligning Volkswagen’s key competences with those of external partners.