On the 4^th of April, the teams of Innovation department and Continuous Improvement Kaizen team of Printmasters have visited the engine & car assembly line of Audi factory in Gyor, Hungary. This factory is the largest engine manufacturer in the world; the facility comprises 5 million square meters (+ 900 football fields, 330 times larger than our facility in Cicarlau.

Below are some interesting facts about the Audi company:

•  More than 11.000 employees;

• 100 companies on the industrial park to deliver just-in-time; 

• 8 versions of engines build for VW, Audi, Seat, Porsche, Skoda, Lamborghini and Bentley;

• 1.9 million engines per year;

• 170.000 cars per year of the Audi A3 sedan, cabriolet and Audi TT.

Audi has implemented their own Lean management system: Audi Production System, which was visible all around the facility. The tour took around 1,5 hour through the engine assembly lines and the car assembly lines. We have seen how you can create a close to perfect make-to-order manufacturing environment with simple Lean & Kaizen elements such as waste elimination, 5S and visual management. Processes are fully standardized and where possible automated. Information & goods flow are visual and linear. There are real time KPI monitors at each assembly line and info panels. Although Audi is light years ahead of us, there are many things we can implement on the production floor that bring immediate gains so we will continue implement elements in our daily print activity that will increase customer experience & more efficient production methods. This visit has really given us a boost

From left to right: Cosmin Lucean (Technical & Innovation manager), Dani Viezer (Padprint / Kaizen), Simona Andrusca (Innovation / Kaizen), Harjan Boes (Operational Excellence manager), Raul Varga (Customer service / Kaizen), Andrei Pintea (DTP / Kaizen), Bianca Lupse (QC coordinator / Kaizen), Otto Opincariu (Innovation), Calin Moldovan (Innovation). Alin Marcu (Operations, Kaizen) made the pictur