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Digitalisation and quality managementmeet passion
Daniel Thiele had established early on that the most important innovations in the automotive industry come from its suppliers. Therefore, after graduating from university, the young industrial engineer started his career by working at thyssenkrupp's steering business unit – a leading supplier for the automotive industry. Today, Daniel is responsible for Quality Assurance at the company’s site in Mülheim an der Ruhr, and invites us to glimpse behind the scenes at the work done by the steering system specialists.
Early fascination with thyssenkrupp
Daniel Thiele can still remember the so-called ‘Dreischeibenhaus’ skyscraper well – a 94-metre-tall office building that served as thyssenkrupp’s regional office until 2010. “As a boy growing up in Düsseldorf, I could not walk past this building with its large thyssenkrupp logo without looking up at it,” remembers Daniel. “I was fascinated by this high-rise building and the countless employees working within it.” Eventually, the glass building faded into obscurity for Daniel, but it would only be a few years before thyssenkrupp would return to the forefront of Daniel’s mind.
From Porsche to thyssenkrupp
Daniel had already developed a great passion for the automotive industry from a young age. That is why he was drawn into the industry while he was still a student. The soon-to-be industrial engineer completed his semester in industry at Porsche’s Weissach site, and even wrote his dissertation while working for the sports car manufacturer. “While working at Porsche, I had figured out that the most important innovations are those that come from automotive suppliers,” reveals Daniel.
After graduating, the newly-minted industrial engineer remembered the high-rise in Düsseldorf’s city centre. The one with the unmissable logo positioned at a dizzying height on the building’s façade, comprising three rings positioned below an arch. As a teenager, Daniel had “only” ever associated thyssenkrupp with steel, but by 2008 he had known about its importance as a leading supplier to the automotive industry for a long time. And so he applied to work at the steering division at thyssenkrupp and soon became one of those employees by whom he had been so fascinated as a teenager – the only difference being the location.
A passion for quality
In 2008, Daniel started working as a Supplier Quality Engineer at thyssenkrupp, and by 2015 he was responsible for quality assurance at the plant in Mülheim an der Ruhr.
“As the current Head of Quality Assurance at the plant, I lead the supplier quality and production quality teams as well as the measuring and cleanliness labs. Planning product audits and implementing error proofing – processes designed to identify and detect potential errors – on the assembly lines also fall within my remit.”
A passion for the automotive industry
Daniel does not regret his decision to start his career working for the steering specialists. On the contrary: At thyssenkrupp Automotive, he is able to combine his passion for the automotive sector with his affinity for quality management and assurance. Another advantage for him is the company’s willingness to innovate:
“thyssenkrupp gives you the opportunity to contribute to the business by showing your commitment and expressing your own interests - even if they fall outside your own area of activity.”
From the steering gear to the finished vehicle
“For example, I launched the initiative Fahrzeug trifft Lenkgetriebe (Vehicle Meets Steering Gear) to strengthen the way in which our employees identify with our products. Together with a small team, we exhibited vehicles such as the BMW Z4, the NIO ES8 and the Mercedes-Benz G-Class at our production facility. I was even able to drive the electric NIO ES8 with more than 800 hp myself. These experiences are simply unforgettable. After all, we only produce individual components at our plant, so we often do not get to see how they are ultimately integrated into the finished vehicle.” Daniel and his colleagues are also working on a number of projects aimed at becoming even more efficient and sustainable in future.
Digitalisation and looking towards the future
Digitalisation, which has long been one of the most important topics in the steering division at thyssenkrupp Automotive, is also helping in this respect. The coronavirus pandemic proved to be an additional driver of this development, as Daniel explains. “The pandemic also presented us with particular challenges. All of a sudden, it was no longer possible to support our international suppliers on site with root cause analyses or corrective measures. Customer audits at our plant were also severely restricted as a result.”
However, the pandemic also turned out to be an opportunity. “We had to adopt new approaches. One of these was the introduction of so-called remote audits,” says Daniel. The greatest advantage of these remote audits is that the physical presence of an auditor on site is no longer essential. “A virtual tour of the production facility is carried out using a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet or even smart glasses,” Daniel explains. “Joint analyses can also be successfully carried out across different sites in this way.”
Smart glasses and remote audits: What may sound like science fiction to many outsiders has long been common practice for employees at thyssenkrupp Automotive. But for Daniel, the full potential of digitalisation is far from being exhausted: “There is still considerable potential for digitalisation, particularly when it comes to wearables, low-code apps and Big Data – and not only in production, but in administration as well.”
Using data to look into the future
Daniel is convinced that digital processes can even be used to predict the future – at least to some extent: “For example, different data can be combined in a model to draw conclusions about correlations and provide insights into the future behaviour of products and processes.” One thing remains unchanged: The most important innovations continue to come from automotive suppliers.