Total commitment to quality. Error margins reduced to a minimum. This philosophy drives design and production at Audi. And this attention to the smallest detail explains the growth the Ingolstadt brand has experienced over the past twenty-five years. Because a quality car is not simply one fitted with the finest upholstery or one that promises the best performance. It takes other aspects into account — less obvious ones, but, if anything, even more important, because they also determine the environmental sustainability of the product, throughout its lifecycle and during production, and its durability over the years.

Appearance and substance

Let's start with an element that might seem secondary, yet is quite telling. At Audi, and within the Volkswagen Group in general, there has long been great pride in the precise alignment of the various body panels on their cars. What does this depend on? The accuracy of the assembly processes. It is a factor that is very easy to spot, even for the untrained eye. All you need to do is look at the gaps between the metal panels — between a door and its pillars, for example, or between the tailgate and the bodywork: the smaller and more consistent these are across all sections, the better. Not so much, or not only, for reasons of "status", but of aerodynamic efficiency. The smaller the gaps, the lower the aerodynamic drag. And therefore, the lower the fuel consumption and pollutant emissions.

Long-term solidity

This care taken in assembling the vehicles naturally extends to the hidden parts as well: the chassis, suspension, engine bay, and so on. This is what determines the long-term robustness of the cars, their ability to remain free of vibrations and rattles even after a great deal of time and many kilometres.

Every Audi is assessed before sale

In order to produce cars that meet the highest quality standards, it is necessary, on the one hand, to develop sophisticated and reliable production processes. On the other, there is no getting around a retrospective check on what comes off the production lines. This latter aspect is the responsibility of Engineer Ralf Hofmeister, Dirk Zitterell and Rudolf Reinhard of the Audi Production Lab. Hofmeister explains: "We have a tool called K-PoWa that we use during body construction, to analyse the entire chain of operations that make up the process, keeping the workflows in mind."

Learning from mistakes

The measurement of all bodyshells and all "sub-assemblies" of main components — across 92 measurement stations, using 412 sensors, for a total of around 1,000 detection points per model — is also important for the retrospective understanding of what can be improved. Hofmeister again: "In this way we can tell whether there are anomalies in production relating to the vehicle geometry, whether they have an impact on the overall result or whether they influence one another. By using data science to detect anomalies, we can carry out fully automated statistical monitoring of the measurements." All of this generates an impressive volume of data: around three million records every day. "If we were to act manually, we would not be able to monitor such volumes of data. This is where K-PoWa comes in: this tool demonstrates what Industry 4.0 means and how big data can help us."

Big data for more sustainable production

Quality production makes it possible to create cars with a lower environmental impact. Advanced factories capable of working with big data are, however, also more sustainable in and of themselves. Big data, in fact, increase production efficiency: the merging, processing and targeted evaluation of data make it possible to avoid errors, so that resources and materials are used sparingly and efficiently. All this, while the optimisation of production operations lightens the workload of technicians and increases the flexibility of processes. "As a premium brand we set ourselves very high standards," concludes Rudolf Reinhard. "Our preventive measurement technology makes production more sustainable: it is cost-efficient and helps to reduce both energy consumption and waste generation."

Big data in the future

If big data are of great importance today, they will be of even greater importance in the future. Within the Audi Production Lab, a range of new technologies are being developed. "We work with our colleagues in production to develop cutting-edge tools for data analysis, both in production and in planning. The Lab acts as an interface between innovation and production and provides targeted support to technicians and planning managers," explains Rudolf Reinhard of the Audi Production Lab.