Today’s world is changing faster than ever before. Technological, geopolitical, social, and climatic developments present major challenges not only to the automotive industry but to society as a whole.
In an exclusive interview with CIO Review, Hans-Jurgen Braun, Head of Operations of Vitesco Technologies shares his valuable insights into how the manufacturing sector can deal with these challenges and why the plant of the future at Vitesco Technologies will be sustainable, smart, and predictive.
What are the initiatives adopted by Vitesco Technologies to address the socio-geopolitical, technological and climate related challenges faced by the concurrent manufacturing industry?
Our north star, the plant of the future, helps us tackling all these challenges. We have a very clear picture of it’s central characteristics: sustainable, smart, and predictive. And we have a resolute plan how to get there. As part of our corporate strategy DIRECTION 2030, we as Operations have launched five big strategic projects that focus on sustainability, digital transformation in all areas, profitability, and automation.
Let’s start with sustainable: Please shed some light on how Vitesco Technologies addresses the topics of sustainability and carbon neutrality?
First, I want to mention that we take a multidimensional view on the topic of sustainability and focus on the 3Ps of sustainability: people, planet, and profit.
On the one hand, I truly believe that people, not technology, will shape the plant of the future and that they will remain the key success factor. But tasks and job profiles will change, and we have to take care of our employees, train and develop them, and prepare them for the future.
Transparent qualification systems, digital learning concepts and gamification-based training approaches pave the way to new career opportunities for our people
On the other hand, to fight climate change, the carbon footprint must be drastically reduced. Already today, all our locations cover their grid electricity demand exclusively from renewable energy sources. In addition, many plants also produce their own sustainable electricity. Furthermore, all new buildings are designed and built according to the highest sustainability standards, and we have an internal sustainability certificate, the Green Plant Label, that is being used to assess the energy and environmental performance of our sites. We are fully committed to carbon neutrality and have ambitious targets: climate-neutral operations by 2030 and a climate-neutral value chain by 2040.
All in all, however, the plant of the future must also be profitable. To run business successfully, efficient processes, highest quality standards and competitive cost structures are key. By actively driving these three P’s of sustainability in day-to-day operations, while maintaining a balance between them we have embedded sustainability firmly in our corporate DNA.
How does Vitesco Technologies ensure personal and professional development of its employees? How do you prepare them for the future?
As I said, the digital transformation is not just a technical issue. Without qualified personnel, it will falter or not be tackled at all. The plant of the future will become more autonomous, but it will not displace humans. Jobs in production are not disappearing but changing and the importance of qualified employees is increasing. Transparent qualification systems, digital learning concepts and gamification-based training approaches pave the way to new career opportunities for our people. Especially for our employees in production we have developed the Career Map, a one-stop information point directly located on the shop floor. Each worker in our locations can easily find his or her current position on the map, see what qualifications he or she needs to fulfill and what qualifications are needed to move to another position. A schedule of learning sessions is also part of the Career Map and trainings can be booked directly. It creates an incentive for employees to further educate themselves and be open to learning. They are part of the process and their own professional growth.
We also aim to foster the personal and professional development of our employees by breaking down organizational silos, building networks and empowering interdisciplinary teams to work together on global projects.
Tell us how contemporary technologies like big data and AI are impacting the manufacturing sector. How are you ensuring the digital transformation of Vitesco Technologies and make the plant of the future smart and predictive?
When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) in manufacturing, I think we’re still at the beginning of an exciting journey. AI systems will completely change the way we run our production and enable greater efficiency by improving processes and providing real-time insights. But AI does not mean that machines learn by themselves and replace humans. The cooperation between humans and machines is the decisive factor for success. In order to gain significant benefits from AI, the organisation must become a learning and data driven organisation, which means that machines learn from humans, humans learn from machines, and machines help humans make the right decisions. Through this smart interconnection of people, all systems and the data generated from it, we will be able to forecast trends and events and to some extent, we will be capable of predicting the future. With data-driven analyses, we can forecast and control future quality-influencing events or predict when equipment will fail. This will lead to much more resilient supply chain and production processes and allows us to act in time instead of reacting when it is too late.
