Volkswagen designs a disinfectant dispenser for its plants

WOLFSBURG: Volkswagen attaches great importance to complying with hygiene rules. Among other things, this includes ensuring that employees disinfect their hands. For this reason, large disinfectant dispensers have been set up at short notice at almost all locations.

“These are genuine Volkswagen in-house products,” says Dirk Nieschulze proudly. Nieschulze heads the so-called Competence Center for Technology at the component plant in Braunschweig.

In day-to-day business, Nieschulze knows that departments are often trapped in their own control processes. “But when we bring teams together, even from different locations, then these teams are creatively stimulated, and great added value is created for the company,” says the 54-year-old.

For example, the colleagues from Braunschweig and Emden together built jigs for battery system assembly at the Braunschweig plant. “You couldn’t buy that off the shelf,” says Nieschulze.

“The team from Emden, which was put together at short notice, immediately took up this challenge enthusiastically. Everyone contributed their ideas and wanted to make the system a success,” says production manager Thomas Scholz, citing as an example the colleagues from the vehicle production department.

“They searched every corner of our factory for parts that we could possibly use for the disinfectant dispenser.”

Be it the component plants in Kassel, Chemnitz and Salzgitter, the vehicle plants in Zwickau, Wolfsburg and Osnabrück or the Transparent Factory in Dresden – the “Made in Emden” devices are used everywhere.