Awards for the best Audi suppliers
Lisbon/Ingolstadt (ots)
AUDI AG has now presented awards to its 25 best suppliers of 1999 in Lisbon at the dealer presentation of the new Audi A4. The company Wilhelm Karmann GmbH, Rheine, is "1999 Supplier of the Year". The company received the award for its excellent work on the overall Audi Cabriolet project. This Audi model was produced by Karmann in Rheine from 1997 to the start of this year.
As Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, stressed in his address: "In a product world in which the drive towards innovations has become vital for a company's survival, we now depend more than ever before on synergies and cooperation with external partners."
In the run-up to the eleventh supplier awards, around 850 suppliers were assessed by the Audi divisions Quality Assurance, Technical Development, Purchasing, Logistics and Production in a multi-stage selection process. The criteria on which this assessment was based included the reliability of the items supplied, the quality of the products, flexibility, punctuality and dependability.
Erich Schmitt, Chairman of the Board of AUDI AG for Purchasing, thanked the suppliers for their outstanding work and innovations submitted this year and last. Quite a few of these were realised as outline agreements for production-vehicle development. "Customer demands in future will lead to increasingly individually designed products which must be supplied quickly and in keeping with customer expectations," commented Schmitt.
According to Werner Zimmermann, Head of Quality Assurance at AUDI AG: "Quality and customer satisfaction are an important factor contributing to a company's success and competitiveness". This can only be achieved through intensive cooperation between company and supplier.
Audi is an international developer and manufacturer of high-quality cars. The company maintains production sites in Germany, Hungary, Brazil, China and South Africa. In 1999 Audi supplied around 635,000 cars and produced more than 1.2 million engines, bringing in sales revenues in excess of DM 29.6 billion. The Audi Group currently has more than 49,000 employees.
Communication: Corporate and Finance Joachim Cordshagen, Tel: ++49 841 89 36340 e-mail: joachim.cordshagen@audi.de Dr. Ute Röding-Lange, Tel: ++49 841 89 36384 e-mail: ute.roeding-lange@audi.de
Original-Content von: Audi AG, übermittelt durch news aktuell