Audi, following on from Volkswagen's announcement yesterday, has today confirmed that it's beginning a slow, careful process of putting its European factories back to work.
Working with the Robert Koch Institute
The luxury carmaker, along with everyone else, shut down its European plants in mid-March in the face of the COVID-19 onslaught. Now, in consultation with the Robert Koch Institute (Germany's equivalent of the Centres For Disease Control) Audi is starting to power-up its factories for limited production.
"We will manage the restart as a joint European act," said Board of Management Member for Production Peter Kössler. This is because supply chains and production and logistics processes are closely interlinked within the Group and with partners at the international level. Kössler continued: "The focus is on the employees, because they need a safe working environment. Audi teams of experts have therefore adapted processes with a view to health protection in consultation with the specialist departments and works councils. I would like to thank all Audi employees and our partners around the world for their flexibility and joint efforts in times like these."
'Health precautions get the highest priority'
"On the way back to the first phase after the production shutdown, health precautions for the protection of the employees have the highest priority," explained Chairman of the Works Council Peter Mosch. "The restart will be accompanied by a comprehensive package of measures to ensure that the employees' health is protected."
The keep employees safe, and avoid outbreaks of the disease in its factories, Audi is re-jigging its shift rota to keep person-to-person contact down to a minimum, issuing clear rules on cleaning and hygiene, and making it obligatory to use facemasks, or other forms of mouth and nose protection, in situations where a distance of at least 1.5 metres cannot be maintained between people. Other innovations include transparent plastic barriers between workers, such as those who work on door fittings.
Experts working to declare factories 'Corona-ready'
Each of the factory workspaces, and offices too, have been analysed by experts from occupational safety, health care, industrial engineering and the works council. Only when all of these experts agree is the space confirmed to be 'Corona-ready.' The working group also took a close look at the working environment: group spaces, factory gates, parking spaces and internal factory traffic, as well as catering and factory restaurants and claims that it has developed appropriate solutions for all areas.
Some production has already re-started, such as at Audi's engine factory in Gyor in Hungary. The rest of the factories will begin work again, if all goes well, towards the end of April.