17.3.2003
Agila: Big savings for small car

An international team reduced production costs for the Agila in record-breaking time by a record sum.

The VLE Agila team successfully reduced production costs for the versatile Micro van by 1000 euro per vehicle. This achievement is just as remarkable as the short lead team in which it was accomplished.

In Spring 2000, GME top management together with Suzuki top management assembled a team to identify cost saving opportunities in production that could be implemented within a two-year time frame. Key objectives were to reduce production costs and at the same time further engineer and improve the Agila.

The Agila project team has successfully completed their assignment with many cost saving solutions that have also resulted in improved quality. The saving solutions have already been applied with the recent model year changes.

"It wasn't an easy task," says Vehicle Line Director Peter Klein. "However, there were good reasons for combining these two tasks into one challenge. A separate approach could have easily had negative results. Especially, as a true automotive engineer sees more in "his" car than the cost issue."

"I was impressed by all the creativity and the fresh ideas that came up every day," states Michael Weiser, ITDC Agila Program Manager. He believes that there is hardly any other Opel vehicle for which the development specialists tested and evaluated as many color and fabric options as for the youthful Agila.

The team is especially proud that the Njoy Special Edition trim levels were extended to other carlines cost efficiently. The fact that two large organizations needed to work closely together in a joint project seemed initially to be a major hurdle – but it became a true advantage. Team members from Suzuki brought in their vast experience from their line organization and shared their proven team approach of concentrating a high level of decision making power in a small team.

In total, the core team included 20 people from ITDC, from the Suzuki team in Japan and the Agila production team in Poland as well as from the Suzuki production facility in Hungary where the Agila's sister model "Wagon R+" is produced.

Apart from normal benchmark activities, important tools such as GoFast! or supplier workshops and competitive reviews were used. A review of supplier contracts led the team to suggest a bundling of orders as well as long-term contract extensions as a means of building sustainable cost reductions. In addition, the team viewed the location of suppliers close to production as favorable.

The recent success is now already history. For the current year, cost savings of approximately 200 euro per vehicle are targeted. "We have made an example how to contribute to Opel's turnaround", concludes Peter Klein. "Of course, we are aware that our success can not be applied on a 1:1 basis to other carlines. Nevertheless, we are going in the right direction."