Volkswagen Reopens Europe Plants, Offering a Vision of the Postvirus Factory - The Wall Street Journal

Volkswagen assembly-line workers are required to wear masks if they cannot always maintain a 6-foot... — Volkswagen assembly-line workers are required to wear masks if they cannot always maintain a 6-foot distance from each other.
Photo: Matthias Leitzke/Volkswagen AG

William Boston

The Wall Street Journal

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April 17, 2020 12:19 pm ET

BERLIN— Volkswagen AG VOW 2.20% will restart car plants across Europe next week, offering a pandemic-era blueprint for other global manufacturers that will alter workers’ daily lives and, at least temporarily, relegate productivity to the back seat.

The world’s biggest car maker by sales is issuing new manuals to its global workforce, detailing a list of 100 workplace changes designed to minimize the risk of coronavirus infections. Workers will be asked to take their temperatures from home each morning, change into their factory-floor uniforms before arriving and bring their own lunch. Carpooling is out.

The changes are so extensive that unions say staff will need extra time to familiarize themselves with the new practices. “We have never developed, built or sold cars in these conditions,” Bernd Osterloh, head of Volkswagen’s works council, said in a statement.

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Volkswagen and other global car makers have orchestrated rolling closures of many of their plants around the world—first shutting factories in China, then Europe and North America. The closures were intended to curb the spread of the virus at the workplace, but also to deal with collapsing global demand, dealership closures and the need to virus-proof assembly lines.

Car makers have mostly restarted plants in China, the early epicenter of the outbreak. New-car sales there plunged when swaths of the country were quarantined in January and February. But after factories began to reopen in early March, car production and sales have started to climb again. It is too early to say how soon, or whether, demand will fully recover.

Now, manufacturers in Europe are restarting plants, too, and hoping for a similar boost. The German auto industry, home to one in 10 manufacturing jobs in Europe, is at the heart of the continent’s efforts to relaunch its economy. By the end of March, 1.1 million of Europe’s 2.6 million auto manufacturing workers had been furloughed, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

Back to Work

Volkswagen is rolling out new rules for workers returning to factories in Europe. Here’s a look at the changes.

At home:

Worker takes temperature and goes over Covid-19 symptoms checklist
Worker puts on VW coveralls and work shoes

Inside the factory:

Workers place material (pallets or small boxes of parts) at a pickup point marked on the floor, other workers come and pick it up.
Before breaks or after shifts, workers disinfect their tools.
Workers must maintain social distancing of six feet at all time.
Lunch is brought from home and eaten at work stations.

Some European car makers have already begun to resume production. France’s Renault SA restarted a plant in Portugal. Magna Steyr AG, a contract manufacturer, has resumed production of Mercedes-Benz G-Class sport-utility vehicles. Next week, Daimler AG ’s Mercedes will restart production of powertrains at plants in Berlin, Hamburg and Untertürkheim.

Employees of Volvo Cars, owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, are also returning next week to a vastly different workplace at the company’s plant in Torslanda, Sweden.

“When people arrive on Monday there will be checkpoints at the entrance where we can check temperature and also blood oxygen levels,” Volvo Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said.

Volvo plans to begin working three shifts at its Torslanda plant starting Monday, but probably only three to four days a week to achieve about 60% capacity as demand slowly ramps up, Mr. Samuelsson said.

Volkswagen, meanwhile, is deploying some of the measures it applied in China, where the new coronavirus emerged. It is also adding new ones. Many will require workers to reorganize their daily lives.

The changes begin before workers leave home. To eliminate crowded changing rooms inside the plant, employees will have to put on their shop clothes at home before coming to work. Cafeterias will be closed, so workers will have to bring their own lunches, which they can eat at their workstation while practicing social distancing.

Volkswagen has put up temporary barriers in some parts of its plants to restrict contact... — Volkswagen has put up temporary barriers in some parts of its plants to restrict contact between workers and prevent infections.
Photo: Matthias Leitzke/Volkswagen AG

In China, returning workers are screened for fever as they entered the plant. In Europe, workers are being asked to take their own temperature and go through a checklist of Covid-19 symptoms before leaving the house each day. Employees are expected to report any symptoms. The company is also asking workers to refrain from coming to work in carpools.

Volkswagen will institute buffer periods between changing shifts to allow one group of workers to leave before the next shift comes in, to minimize interactions. Workers will enter in a single file, keeping a distance of 6 feet between each other.

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Inside the factory, routes have been remapped to add space between workers. Wherever the required 6-foot separation cannot be guaranteed, employees will have to wear face masks. Workers will also no longer pass material or tools by hand. They will need to set things down so others can pick them up at a safe distance.

Andreas Tostmann, Volkswagen’s global production chief, said production ramp-up will be gradual. “If necessary, we will produce less rather than take any risks,” he said in an email exchange. “We won’t have the entire workforce back in the early days, but rather successively increase capacity.”

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Volkswagen plants would begin operating at about 30% capacity, gradually building up over weeks, Mr. Tostmann said. He cited the restart in China, which began slowly in February and March. Volkswagen’s factories in China are now working three shifts and operate at 60% to 70% of precrisis capacity.

The first European Volkswagen plant to resume operation will be its factory in Bratislava, Slovakia, which on Monday will switch the assembly lines back on. The plant builds cars for the company’s Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and SEAT brands.

Then, on Thursday, Volkswagen’s electric-vehicle plant in Zwickau, in eastern Germany, is set to go back online and begin filling orders for the first 37,000 ID.3 all-electric cars. The company’s main plant in Wolfsburg is set to resume operation on April 27.

Volkswagen plants in Latin America, Russia and Chattanooga, Tenn., are expected to follow and will also adopt the new antivirus regime.