VW's production boss says Wolfsburg plant will be leader in networked production

Volkswagen Group veteran Christian Vollmer, who became VW brand's production chief in August 2020, is working on the biggest reorganization in decades at the company's home plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. Project Trinity, which is developing a full-electric, self-driving flagship car, will transform the plant into a technology hub for next-generation technologies, Vollmer told Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive News Europe.

You were in Wolfsburg until 2005, then spent a long time at VW's operations in China. What has changed in Wolfsburg in the last 15 years?

My first surprise was that because of the coronavirus pandemic there is no longer the famous traffic jam on the A39. You no longer have to leave Braunschweig [Brunswick] an hour early to arrive at the plant on time. So, I was in Wolfsburg far too early for my first appointment. A lot has certainly changed at the plant over the years, but a lot is still familiar to me. The Golf is still there, for example, and the Tiguan is a new addition. And with everything we are planning now, I assume that we will have greater changes here in the next five years than in the entire last 15 years.

Your most important project is the Trinity flagship electric car, which is scheduled to start production in Wolfsburg in 2026. What does that mean for the location?

The Trinity project will make Volkswagen's main plant the flagship for state-of-the-art and fully networked car production. I sense an enthusiasm for the project here that I have never experienced before in Wolfsburg. We already have unsolicited applications from people who say: 'I want to be part of this, be there from the beginning. Trinity will be cool, let me be part of the team.' Something really new is being created here.

What is the status of the project?

We are working flat out on Trinity, especially our sales chief Klaus Zellmer, development chief Thomas Ulbrich and VW brand CEO Ralf Brandstätter. We have a meeting every 14 days with a high board presence. At the moment we are in the discovery phase, in which all suggestions -- even crazy ones -- are explicitly allowed. All ideas are put on the table, what we can do differently and how, in order to build a highly innovative vehicle. Trinity will be a real beacon for the brand and for the entire group. We have great ideas, and we will implement many of them.

Brandstätter has spoken of revolutionary approaches in manufacturing and fully networked production. What will these be?

Currently we have the ID family of electric cars on the MEB platform. Trinity will set new standards, including in production. Digitalization, automation as well as lightweight construction and aerodynamics play a particularly important role. Using new technologies, we have the clear vision of reducing the production time per vehicle to 10 hours.

How will this be achieved?

It will no longer be the case that we weld hundreds of small sheet metal parts together, but we will work with large components. In addition, the Trinity will have significantly fewer variants without the customer missing them. With fewer variants and more common parts, the complexity in production decreases. That means you can build shorter assembly lines and save costs. We no longer need so much space to set up the many different parts. We will take the workforce along with us during the transformation and train them for the new tasks, so that the jobs in production are also made fit for the future.

Audi CEO Markus Duesmann has said there will also be an Audi version of the Trinity. Will that also be built in Wolfsburg? And perhaps versions for other VW Group brands?

The idea exists and we are in talks about it. But it's still at a very early stage. We have only just started talks with the sister brands.

You took office in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. How did that work out?

I was lucky enough to come to Germany in the summer between the first and second wave. I visited all the locations in Germany and also the Volkswagen plant in Bratislava. That was important to me, to get to know the locations and the workforce on site. Then came the second wave, and I had to limit my travel considerably. But I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to visit more plants again in the future -- in South and North America, for example.

How does that affect your work?

That's a big challenge, especially in the start-up phase of new models. In the past, I simply flew there and spent the whole day in a pilot hall to get a picture of the state of preparations. Now it has to be done without a visit to the site. But we have developed a really great format. I call it "mixed reality collaboration." I get parts sent to my office a week in advance -- steering wheels, seats, headrests, center consoles and recently even the front flap of a new model. Then I am virtually switched to the pilot hall and we go through everything. I can be there on site virtually, but I also have the new parts in front of me to touch and examine. That works really well. We can discuss and decide everything together.

What other production priorities do you want to set?

First of all, I want to promote the transfer of knowledge, which is one of my hobbies. In such a large network with 16 production sites worldwide, you do not always have to reinvent the wheel. You can learn from others and also must not be afraid of being copied. That is one of the experiences I took with me from China. My assistant there once told me: You must be proud when we copy you. What we don't copy is not relevant to us. For me, this copying culture is an important lever for implementing good ideas more quickly in all plants. And not just at the Volkswagen brand, but throughout the entire mass-market brands, which include Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

To read the full Automobilwoche interview with Christian Vollmer, click here.