After a long, long holiday break, Purchasing Transformation is back on track.
With the Detroit Auto Show in full swing, the auto manufacturers are out in force showing off their hopes to saving their industry, it’s sad to note that even the manufacturers that have been somewhat safe in the outskirts of the slowdown are experiencing external troubles.
When KIA Motors established their European plant in Zilina 2006 they aimed to create the most efficient automotive plant in the world. And looking at the results of 2008 the probability is rather high that they’ve succeed.
With everything running smoothly the plant spits out a new car every 60 seconds and production was increased by 38 percent in 2008. But what really impresses is the quality of the vehicles produced. KIA has nearly 300 quality controllers on the site and according to plant manager In-Kyu Bae only 35 percent of the funds budgeted for guarantee issues have been used, though hard to control, this figure points to great quality of the production.
Too bad then that KIA and their competitors in Slovakia have gotten caught in the middle of the Russian/EU gas-war and have announced that they need to shut down their plants for a few days due to power shortage.
