What Will AUDI Q3 Give to Spanish Suppliers?

This is a question I have been wondering about over the past few months, when I heard for the first time about the possibility to have a car from AUDI produced by SEAT manufacturing plant in Martorell (Barcelona, Spain).
This is still a mystery, since the SEAT Board of Managers has not received yet any indications about the specific requirements for checking tools. We do not know if the suppliers will be German or Spanish. We do not know either if, as far as dimensional control is concerned, the same methods as the ones used for previous models will be used, or if more sophisticated systems will be used in order to get a better traceability and data collection.

Previously, the launching in 2007 of the second generation of the Citroen C5 marked a turning point for the parts awarded to Spanish suppliers as for the quality required for finishings. Since it was a D Segment vehicle, it meant changes, as much in the checking systems and models as in finished parts materials and finishings. In the end, the purchasing price was a decisive factor to continue to work with the traditional systems that were used at that moment, and there was no real change of methodology or concept. Contrary to French suppliers, Spanish suppliers chose to apply an economic logic at the expense of a quality based logic.

With the launching of the SEAT Exeo (D Segment) we did not see either a substantial change since a major part of the checking and production tools were reused from the Audi A4 project.

The current crisis may be an important factor to have Audi make minimal investments with the Q3 (SUV Segment) in checking means, and use the tools systems and concepts that are currently used for the rest of SEAT and VOLKSWAGEN models.

One of the major points I would criticize Spanish suppliers for is that they get projects thanks to their prices, and this aspect limits investments a lot . One of the first elements to be cut down are checking tools, and this is a serious mistake.

Japanese OEMs such as NISSAN or TOYOTA demand a high quality to their suppliers for the design of their checking fixtures, but other brands leave more freedom of choice on that matter. This is when many suppliers decide to cut down costs on checking fixtures and can thus continue to be ignorant. They manage to reduce costs and also avoid to show that things are going wrong.

Some people are used to joke by saying: “Why should we check something that we already know is wrong? We’d better not check it so that nobody will know…”

I would like to see the Audi Q3 development made in a different way, so that we, Spanish suppliers, could begin to show the industrial potential we have. Checking fixtures are the reflection of the planning capacity applied in the industrial process, and of the vision of future based on the management of non-quality costs. The Q3 can be an excellent opportunity and a window for the world to prove that we deserve to manufacture upper level products.

Photographies: Diariomotor