George Marcu with TI Automotive, left, shows a fuel tank for a Volkswagen GTI to Allen Zhang with
Cold Headed Fasteners on Friday at a Volkswagen minority purchasing and trade show at the
Chattanooga Convention Center.
Steven Salvatore, right, with Chattanooga Seating Systems, talks with Ian Davies with Volkswagen on Friday, Oct. 17, 2014, at a Volkswagen minority purchasing and trade show at the Chattanooga Convention Center in Chattanooga.Volkswagen's new innovative way of assembling cars, including its planned midsize sport utility vehicle, assures the growth of the Chattanooga plant, an official said Friday.
"The SUV opens more doors than simply a new vehicle. It's our ticket to the future in Chattanooga," said Ian Davies, VW Group of America's general manager for product purchasing and supplier readiness.
The production platform enables VW to design and produce a variety of vehicles by sharing parts among them. It will provide more production opportunities for the plant as well as possible added business for suppliers, Davies said.
"The platform's whole point is that it allows for much more flexibility," said Davies, who spoke to about 70 people representing potential minority parts suppliers for the SUV that will be made starting in late 2016.
Dubbed the modular transverse toolkit, the global platform is part of the $900 million that VW is investing as it expands and retrofits the Chattanooga plant to assemble the SUV.
VW plans to hire another 2,000 workers to make the SUV at the factory, which already employs about 2,400 people producing the Passat sedan. Davies said the old platform on which the Passat is now made will die in Chattanooga when the car's current model is phased out, giving way to the new process.
Another VW official told the group that the company wants to use more North American suppliers of parts and services.
Tom Golden, VW's manager of product purchasing, said the company is attempting to shift from the German way of picking suppliers.
"We're trying to get away from the model of 'It was invented in Germany, from Germans, for Germans,'" he said. "That's working very well for us in dominating the European market and dominating the Chinese market. We're having less success with that philosophy in the U.S. and recognizing that."
Golden urged the potential suppliers to offer bids based on VW's specifications, but to also provide alternatives.
"Come to us with proposals that bring cost savings or quality improvement," he said. "If you've got a viable alternative that is, ideally, already in place with other [original equipment manufacturers], we'd love to hear that."
Keekee Mathis, VW's supplier diversity assistant manager, said the plant surpassed its goal in 2013 of at least 10 percent of its products and services coming from minority- or women-owned businesses, coming in at about 12 percent.
"This year, we're on track and on pace," she said. "We know we'll meet our goal, but we may exceed the goal this year as well."
Officials declined to attach a dollar value to the target.
Mathis said that in 2015, it's looking at asking its tier one, or primary, suppliers to ask the companies which provide them goods and services for VW to meet a 10 percent minority target.
John Zardis, of MIG Wire and Tube in Chattanooga, said he hoped the meeting will lead to future business for his company.
"It's a good opportunity for us to meet people and get our foot in the door," he said.
James Adams of eSpin Technology, also of Chattanooga, said it already provides air filtration products to VW, but the meeting was a chance to connect with some tier one suppliers.
Machelle Williams, VW of America's general manager of diversity, said that when VW announced in 2008 it was opening a Chattanooga manufacturing plant, that was "a game-changer for us."
"Volkswagen of America is serious about supplier diversity," she said.
Williams said that in 2005, there were no minority-owned Audi dealerships. Only two VW dealers were minority owned, she said.
Today, 7 percent of Audi and VW dealerships are minority or women owned, Williams said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.