Magyar News, 1998. szeptember-1999. augusztus (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1999-07-01 / 11-12. szám
GYŐR (continued from page 1) Géza Bodnár Audi dealer in Connecticut rience at the plant. He told me that the employees are on the younger side, well prepared, knowlegable and are very proud of what they are doing. They should be because in comparisson they came out on the top and were trusted with this phenominal task of making Audi motors. He described the plant as highly organized and immaculate, not a speck of dirt or mess anywhere. The state of the art waste management eliminates a site that was so familiar around factories with their huge dumps that was a hazard to the environment. Not only the the dust and oil is filtered from the inachinig area but 40% of the heat energy is recaptured. The production is organized based on “process chains”. This means that finished machined parts end up at the end of their production line exactly where they will be Page 2 used on the assembly line, therefor reducing the distance and the time for the work to be done. The only distance is between Ingolstadt and Győr, 300 miles. The bodies of the cars are made and painted in Ingelstadt, carefully wrapped and put on specially designed rail cars. They are shipped overnight to Győr for tire finishing work. Then these are putback onto die train and sent to Ingelstadt. Mr. Bodnár described a veiy interesting relationship between the employees and die management. Organized in special groups the workforce and the management together work out the production targets.This gives the workers a high degree of freedom and more say in the production. It really works and everybody is happy. The plant has the most modem systems to protect the environment. Also the workplace is so clean that a reception with Pictures taken at the plant in Győr dimier was placed right in die middle of die assembly hall. I also received answers to other questions. Waiting for some minor ajustment on my car at Broadbridge Automotive, I picked up a Road and Track magazine. I would like to quote from it. “Why Hungary?In the years after die fall of Communism, it was only natural that western companieswould move into die former Eastern block countries because of their lower production costs.Most desirable lias proved to be Hungary, which easily leads its neighbors in tenns of money invested”. Then continuing. “Why Győr? It’s reasonably close to the German border, with good rail lines. There’s a skilled, loyal, labor force willing to work at a compensation rate one seventh of tliat in Germany. In Győr, Audi was offered a partially completed MAN truck factory that only needed to be finished off to become operational. A 10-year tax break from the Hungarian government certainly must have contnbuted to the decisionmaking process”. In the political and economical transition, as they say, every penny counts. The employees are happy to have an outstanding steady job to support their families. Their work makes us proud and brings fame and trust to die country, to Hungary. Wondering what the future may hold for Győr? It is always hard to tell because diere are many factors diat might determine the direction. Audi is only one of the answers. Fortunately a good one. Audi has plans for Győr. The plan icalls to establish an engine research and developement center at the complex. This facility will employ a few dozen engineers and broaden the plants importance in the family of Audi’s automobile manufacturing. We all wish the finest success to a city diat is close to the heart of the Hungarians. Joseph F. Balogh
