A survey of Volkswagen suppliers conducted by SupplierBusiness.com suggests that Volkswagen still has much to do in improving relations with its suppliers. The survey revealed a number of problem areas for Volkswagen purchasing and less progress in addressing some traditional areas than Volkswagen executives would like.
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Unsurprisingly, suppliers say that Volkswagen has intensified quality demands while also putting pressure on their margins by demanding lower prices. However, suppliers also acknowledge that Volkswagen’s strategy to maintain a brand premium in the market is driving improvements to quality and that takes priority over cost.
But the survey indicates that Volkswagen still has a major issue with two traditional problem areas – new product launch and the quality and stability of volume planning.
SupplierBusiness.com’s editor Susan Brown told just-auto: “The last Golf was subject to a slow ramp-up and we know that Volkswagen has been trying to improve ramp-up performance. But our supplier survey suggests that it still has some way to go and the experience reported on the Golf V ramp-up is no better and possibly worse than that of the previous generation Golf.
“On the other hand, the main deficiency that Volkswagen suppliers report is difficulty in meeting Volkswagen’s exacting quality standards, which at least points in a positive way to Volkswagen’s high ambitions in that area,” added Brown.
