Along with technology,
performance, sound and manufacturing as well as long-term quality, there are
also design, haptics, sophistication and a love for details. Vehicle
development creates the foundation for this. It is implemented in production.
Contact with the Customer Centre and service centre quality are also part of
the quality process. The result of the perfectly tuned interplay is a product
that is top level right from the start, as most recently embodied in the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman.
“Every Porsche is proof of
our comprehensive quality standard – not only within Production or Development,
but across all of the companies departments,” says Albrecht Reimold, Executive
Board Member for Production and Logistics at Porsche AG. “All of our employees
are working skilfully each and every day to deliver the very special Porsche
quality to our customers. This quality accompanies each vehicle we produce
throughout its life phases.” In many cases, this life is very long. More than
two-thirds of all Porsche’s ever built are still driving today. That too is a
typical trait of Porsche quality.
Four pillars of Porsche quality
Customer expectations with
regard to quality are multi-dimensional. Therefore, Frank Moser, Vice President
Corporate Quality at Porsche, defines quality in terms of four pillars:
emotional quality, functional quality, image quality and service quality.
“Individual interaction between the customer and the brand takes place over all
four pillars,” says Moser. On the next level, each pillar contains numerous
sub-aspects. The quality is not right until the whole of this complex matrix
meets all of the stringent standards and thereby achieves the specified degree
of perfection. Moser: “Each pillar must be further optimised continually and
sustainably. What we have already accomplished is never good enough for us.”
•
Emotional quality is defined from
a multi-layer combination of design, performance and sound. It has always been
a very significant character trait for a Porsche, and to customers it is a key
criterion for purchase.
•
Functional quality must primarily
fulfil the expectation that a vehicle will always operate perfectly. It
consists of the factors reliability, quality of use and everyday practicality.
•
Key words such
as haptics, sophistication, seam appearance and love for details explain image quality. It is the impeccable and visually flawless
appearance that in sum makes a Porsche perfect.
•
The excellent
Porsche quality is rounded out by excellent service quality in interaction with customers.
Central control, decentralised
implementation
Typical of Porsche and a
special feature in the automotive industry is a quality process that is
centrally controlled, but is implemented in a decentralised way in individual
departments and business units. For instance, along with the main department of
Corporate Quality, there are separate quality departments within the
Procurement, Development, Production and Sales departments. “Quality competence
is thereby embodied throughout the entire corporation, and each unit has a high
level of self-motivation to achieve the best possible quality,” says Moser. “We
at Porsche do not need to persuade anyone to care more about perfection or
quality in their technical area
Top level quality is part of the
Porsche brand identity
The continual challenge is
to boost quality with each new vehicle model. Moser: The challenge is not only
to maintain our high quality level despite new technologies and the
significantly growing complexity of our products, but to further boost quality
with each new vehicle. There are various key indicators for measuring quality
and thus making it transparent, such as by generating precise statistics on
claims and warranty costs. There are also statistics for long-term quality. One
example is the TÜV Report for 2016. In this report, the Porsche 911 was ranked at the top with the
fewest defects in three vehicle age categories: up to seven, up to nine and up
to eleven years. In addition, for years now it is the unrivalled series winner
in the international quality ranking of J.D. Power.
Albrecht Reimold: “To
constantly work in these peak regions also reflects our understanding of sports
car manufacturing in terms of quality. Every athlete measures his or her
performance in competition by measurement values and key indicators – and that
is precisely how Porsche builds its sports cars as well. Every employee in
production is aware of this challenge, whether in their work preparation, on
the assembly line or of course at our quality and analysis centres. It is a joy
and an incentive at the same time to take up this challenge anew on a daily
basis."
Quality methods in Porsche production
The
quality and analysis centres and final audit areas at the Zuffenhausen and Leipzig plants are key components of the
overall quality process at Porsche. They enable production experts to conduct a
detailed failure cause analysis for different parts. The quality and analysis
centres are important starting points, especially in the production start-up of
new vehicles. This is where the quality of the car’s image is meticulously
optimised right from the start. The goal is to have series production run with
maximum perfection right from the start. In addition, the experts are sought-after
contact persons up until a model is retired, and they are always engaged when
important quality issues need to be resolved. “At Porsche, quality is the
result of intensive work that is driven by a love for the perfect sports car in
all of its phases and aspects. When it comes to quality topics, we study every
little detail to its roots – that is what distinguishes Porsche,” says Albrecht
Reimold.
Cubing of a 719 Cayman
Three innovative methods
that illustrate the meticulous quality work are cubing, the exterior master jig
and the body-in-black.
•
Cubing involves milling a full
size car body from solid aluminium. During the production start-up of a model,
it serves as a reference for optimising and qualifying assembly parts and in
functional analysis of add-on parts. It can be used for such purposes as
checking a leather-upholstered cockpit fitted in the in-house leather shop or
checking components such as headlights for precise fit, seam quality, visual
quality and appearance. Deviations can be found even down to tenths of a
millimetre.
•
The exterior master jig is used together with highly precise measuring
instruments for functional analysis of sheet metal and add-on parts. The focus
here is to attain precision of the overall body. This means that one area of
analysis here is how different parts fit together, even though each part might
conform to its own dimensional tolerances. Examined here are such features as
height contours and seams – also at tenths of millimetre precision.
•
The body-in-black enables exact assessment of the exterior skin of the
body and its surface. It is built up with the most recent up-to-date interior
and exterior skin parts that are relevant to the surface, and it mercilessly
reveals every deviation from the specified and desired manufacturing quality,
especially in pilot production series leading to the production launch.
New quality challenges
For
Porsche, the future has long begun. The challenge is to perfectly integrate new
technologies into the vehicle – such as digitalisation, smart mobility and
electric mobility – and to simultaneously further enhance product quality.
Here, Porsche is not simply performing integration work – rather the company
looks at how it can make every detail better to fit the brand and its products
perfectly. This also applies to apps, Internet services and connectivity. “It
isn’t just a matter of showing colourful pictures on a display. Here, we need
to assure high concept quality and rethink quality,” says Frank Moser.
Porsche quality and
analysis centres
Mission: to analyse the
causes of failures and to qualify parts from pilot production to
end-of-product. Preventive analyses for early quality optimisation.
Important quality methods
and tasks:
Cubing: pilot series qualification of add-on parts for exterior
and interior.
Exterior
master jig: pilot series qualification
of body parts with regard to fit, seams and transitions as well as matching of
body and assembly parts.
Seam
master jig: pilot series qualification
of structurally relevant body parts for fit and joinability.
Total
vehicle analysis with mobile and
stationary measuring instruments.
Body-in-black:
pilot series qualification of sheet
metal parts.
Total
vehicle audit
All vehicle parts
installed at the Zuffenhausen and Leipzig production sites are qualified and
analysed using the instruments and methods mentioned above.
Porsche quality and
analysis centres in Zuffenhausen
Opening
dates: July 2014
Floor
area: approx. 3,000 square metres
Employees: 30
Equipment:
Analysis shop with six analysis stations
including electrical/electronic analysis, Measuring instrument area with six
analysis stations, three of which have stationary measuring machines with very
high precision (hundredth of a millimetre range) and mobile measuring equipment
for analysis around the total vehicle and in cubing
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