Volkswagen to resume production, albeit at a low scale
Volkswagen will be restarting operations at their Wolfsburg plant in Germany, and they will start by manufacturing the popular Golf
The German automaker, Volkswagen has been out of action since the 18th of March. The financial repercussions of this forced break resulted in them spending $2.2 billion dollars to on fixed costs.
Yes, you read it correctly, $2.2 BILLION and this just goes on to show how much capital Volkswagen has as a company. Moving on, finally something seems to be working in Volkswagen’s favour, and that is, operations in their Wolfsburg plant resumed yesterday.
Though the workforce is working at a reduced capacity, with longer cycle times. Prior to this, the first plant Volkswagen plant to restart production was the Zwickau plant, making Wolfsburg plant the second Volkswagen plant to restart operations in Germany. However, this is a staggered start for them, but most importantly, this begins the process of recovery for Volkswagen.
The extremely popular Volkswagen Golf will the first car to be manufactured post the Coronavirus crisis, and this is no surprise as it is the company’s highest selling model (how I dream India too had a Golf).
After the Golf, Volkswagen will be focussing on producing the Tiguan and Touran and they can do so, because, 8000 staffers will be resuming their duties, and they will be doing so by working on a single shift basis.
If all goes well, Volkswagen intends on adding multi-shift operations, along with which, 2600 suppliers will also be resuming operations to support the German autobrand.
In the first week of production, the Wolfsburg plant should produce 1,400 units, and the week after that, with multi-shift operations kicking in, Volkswagen believes they could build more than 6,000 units.
As important as industries are, dealerships too are very important, and Volkswagen has already opened up 70% of their dealerships. The German automaker has made sure that health and hygiene is maintained within the industries and dealerships, and they are doing so by adding several hand-washing facilities across the different workplaces.
Furthermore, washrooms, team-rooms and canteens are being washed and sanitised frequently in order to keep their staff members safe.
Since last Monday, operations have already started in Bratislava and Slovakia, and this trend seems to be following in the different Volkswagen plants situated in Europe.
However, there is no news on the Volkswagen plants recommencing operations in the US, where the cases the number of cases have crossed a million.
