Building Bridges

Formel D works for General Motors not only in the areas of literature and serviceability, but also as a builder of bridges to new regions. For Joachim Beitz and Ralf Rösner of GM/Opel, this represents a special strength of the service provider.

  • Mr Rösner, what do GM/Opel expect from a service provider?

Ralf Rösner: It is highly important to us that our service providers are innovative and feel free to offer criticism. While we do set the framework conditions, our service providers should not be there just to perform tasks, but also to take part in the thinking process and support us in tackling problems.

  • Mr Beitz, does Formel D fulfil your expectations?

Joachim Beitz: I have been working on projects together with Formel D for 15 years and the tasks and requirements have grown continuously. Our teams and the quality of the cooperation have also grown. We have developed a very good common understanding for the work we do. This would not be the case if Formel D did not meet our expectations.

  • Can you give an example of a particularly important milestone in the cooperation between GM/Opel and Formel D?

Ralf Rösner: A very important developmental step was the process of globalisation which we have gone through in recent years. We obviously don’t work simply for the Opel brand alone, but also with the GM global network so as to ensure the maximum possible usability, for example when it comes to the information provided for customer and workshop literature. Formel D has also taken this fundamental step and, like us, has established itself worldwide.

Joachim Beitz: When we intensified our activities in Korea, for example, Formel D took it entirely upon itself to hire a Korean employee who studied in Germany and can speak perfect German, English and Korean. He now works on site and also does research for GM/Opel in Korea for glove box and service literature.

Ralf Rösner: The employees of Formel D know our business very well and are there when you need them. Our employees profit from their know-how all over the world. Joachim Beitz: Formel D has a presence in the all the regions in which we’re active.

  • Virtualisation is presumably a good example of an innovation introduced by Formel D.

Ralf Rösner: The development of virtual models represents a very successful joint project in which we have relied on the ideas of Formel D. The task was to reduce the number of prototypes required for development and thus to save on costs. Work on this project continues.

  • How do you rate the cooperation of GM/Opel with Formel D?

Ralf Rösner: With a grade of 1.4 (1 being the best and 6 the poorest), Formel D’s work received a particularly high satisfaction score last year.

Joachim Beitz: We continuously strive to improve our processes and services in order to meet the challenges posed by a competitive market. We also expect our partners to do the same. We’re glad that Formel D concentrated on this and has already attained a very good grade. Of course we always expect our partners to perform 100 per cent.

Ralf Rösner (laughing): It looks as though we have an optimal working relationship.

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