Lateral and smart thinking at its best -and a reality-check to boot! A win-win for everyone involved.
"Five years ago, managers at Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) realized that with Germany’s graying population the average age of their workers would jump from 41 to 46 by 2017. So they decided to make it happen sooner.
In 2007, the luxury automaker set up an experimental assembly line with older employees to see whether they could keep pace. The production line in Dingolfing, 50 miles northeast of BMW’s Munich base, features hoists to spare aging backs, adjustable-height work benches, and wooden floors instead of rubber to help hips swivel during repetitive tasks.
The verdict: Not only could they keep up, the older workers did a better job than younger staffers on another line at the same factory. Today, many of the changes are being implemented at plants across the company.
Like BMW, Germany’s other automakers are grappling with an aging workforce. With the country also facing a shortage of qualified engineers, many in the industry have decided that its best to keep good workers on the job as long as possible by adapting factories to their needs.
The problem is most pressing for luxury brands such as BMW and Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Audi because the higher-end manufacturers rely more on labor than than volume manufacturers do. And there’s little substitute for the experience gained by years on the assembly line.
“A deficit of engineers and skilled workers is one of the major issues for German carmakers and will become acute in coming years,” said Stefan Bratzel, director at the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch-Gladbach, near Cologne. “So staff need to be kept fit on the assembly line.”
BMW says it implemented more than a dozen changes at Dingolfing, among them movable instruction screens with larger letters and a magnifying glass, and a two-hour rotation cycle to keep minds sharp by regularly switching tasks.
“The 2017 assembly line became as productive as the younger one, but the quality was higher,” said Jochen Frey, a BMW spokesman on personnel issues.
At Audi, efforts to lock in skills have been extended to those with more serious ailments. At the department that packages kits of car parts to be shipped abroad for assembly at factories in India and China, nearly half the staff have some form of physical impairment, ranging from faulty vision to a balky hip.
Alfred Kopold, 47, was forced off Audi’s production line after knee surgery left him unable to sit or stand for long periods. Instead of leaving the company, Kopold moved to the kit-making group, where a customized work station allows him to constantly shift position.
The department, which packages kits for models such as the A4 sedan, A5 coupe and Q5 sport-utility vehicle, also employs more flexible working practices and measures contributions across the mixed-age workforce rather than individually.
With the changes, the department’s productivity jumped by 40 percent between 2005 and 2010, and it now has 96 percent of the output of a totally healthy team, according to its head, Hartmut Bartsch. The “ultimate goal,” Bartsch said, is to ensure that even those confined to wheelchairs can do the most demanding jobs."
"Five years ago, managers at Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) realized that with Germany’s graying population the average age of their workers would jump from 41 to 46 by 2017. So they decided to make it happen sooner.
In 2007, the luxury automaker set up an experimental assembly line with older employees to see whether they could keep pace. The production line in Dingolfing, 50 miles northeast of BMW’s Munich base, features hoists to spare aging backs, adjustable-height work benches, and wooden floors instead of rubber to help hips swivel during repetitive tasks.
The verdict: Not only could they keep up, the older workers did a better job than younger staffers on another line at the same factory. Today, many of the changes are being implemented at plants across the company.
Like BMW, Germany’s other automakers are grappling with an aging workforce. With the country also facing a shortage of qualified engineers, many in the industry have decided that its best to keep good workers on the job as long as possible by adapting factories to their needs.
The problem is most pressing for luxury brands such as BMW and Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Audi because the higher-end manufacturers rely more on labor than than volume manufacturers do. And there’s little substitute for the experience gained by years on the assembly line.
“A deficit of engineers and skilled workers is one of the major issues for German carmakers and will become acute in coming years,” said Stefan Bratzel, director at the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch-Gladbach, near Cologne. “So staff need to be kept fit on the assembly line.”
BMW says it implemented more than a dozen changes at Dingolfing, among them movable instruction screens with larger letters and a magnifying glass, and a two-hour rotation cycle to keep minds sharp by regularly switching tasks.
“The 2017 assembly line became as productive as the younger one, but the quality was higher,” said Jochen Frey, a BMW spokesman on personnel issues.
At Audi, efforts to lock in skills have been extended to those with more serious ailments. At the department that packages kits of car parts to be shipped abroad for assembly at factories in India and China, nearly half the staff have some form of physical impairment, ranging from faulty vision to a balky hip.
Alfred Kopold, 47, was forced off Audi’s production line after knee surgery left him unable to sit or stand for long periods. Instead of leaving the company, Kopold moved to the kit-making group, where a customized work station allows him to constantly shift position.
The department, which packages kits for models such as the A4 sedan, A5 coupe and Q5 sport-utility vehicle, also employs more flexible working practices and measures contributions across the mixed-age workforce rather than individually.
With the changes, the department’s productivity jumped by 40 percent between 2005 and 2010, and it now has 96 percent of the output of a totally healthy team, according to its head, Hartmut Bartsch. The “ultimate goal,” Bartsch said, is to ensure that even those confined to wheelchairs can do the most demanding jobs."
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