GM’s global head of quality, Peter Dersley, is promising that Saabs built at Opel’s Russelsheim plant in Germany will have at least equal quality to those built in Sweden, writes Julian Rendell.
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“We are introducing a global production system in GM. Production will be fully standardised and it doesn’t matter if we build a Saab or an Opel in Germany. The quality will be the same,” says Dersley.
Russelsheim had a poor record for quality in the 1990s, which Dersley now claims has been reversed. Several strong scores in quality surveys appear to back-up GM’s claims to have dramatically-reduced warranty claims in the past fives years.
GM says warranty claims one-year old cars fell by 65 per cent between 1999 and 2005 and by 60 per cent for three-year old cars.
Dersley says a number of factors have brought about the improvement, including better training, a more rigorous inspection regime and investment in checking equipment.
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By GlobalDataOne of the most significant developments, he says, is better design-for-manufacture.
“We are now designing in quality at the early stages of a project,” says Dersley.
In fact GM’s global quality boss says he spends much of his time in the design studio working with engineers and designers on the new Epsilon II-platform for the next-generation Opel Vectra, Saab 9-5 and Saab 9-3, all cars to be built at Russelsheim.
The extra Saab production of 120,000 units will push Opel’s German plant to its maximum capacity of 250,000 cars a year. Today it is operating at just 70 per cent.
In the next three years, Trolhatten will have to shape up and bid for more niche volume projects to ensure it stays open.
It is already guaranteed the junior Cadillac sedan, the BLS. Other possibilities are the 9-3 convertible, currently worth 20,000 units and built in Austria by Magna, plus soft-top and estate variants of the BLS.
A key model will be the range-topping Opel crossover 4×4, which will replace the Signum and could also be badged as a Saab and Cadillac.
Julian Rendell
