HN 2: The British and their Works

Some of the firms named by the Highways and Highway
Transport Branch were unknown to the Volkswagenwerk and
had to be examined on the spot. This job was undertaken by the
"Reisedienst" (field representatives service), set up in August
1946, which consisted of two engineers. It maintained contact
with the British departments and the German dealers. The latter
were not only advised, but at the same time subjected to a strict
quality control. However, the mobile inspectors were sometimes
harsh, as the main distributor in Essen, Gottfried Schultz
found out in no uncertain fashion at the end of April 1947.
With purpose-built premises, good mechanical equipment
and 160-180 vehicle repair throughputs per month, his workshop
occupied a leading position among the main distributors.
However, as he read in the inspection report, "the work it does
can scarcely even be called mediocre", and it failed to come up to
Volkswagen expectations "by a long way". 146 The main reason for
this was given as the absence of suitable management for the
technical operation, and inadequate supervision of fitting by
the foremen and supervisors. The inspector therefore undertook
minor changes in the work organisation. In a discussion with
the works council and management he recommended transfers
in the workforce.
In return, the Volkswagenwerk allowed its dealers to make
critical observations, with the result that gradually an exchange
of ideas developed from which both sides gained. At a management
meeting in mid-July 1947 general manager Münch said
that in the foreseeable future the Volkswagen must successfully
compete with other vehicles. It was therefore important to listen
to the views of the VW dealers concerning sale of the products.
Gottfried Schultz submitted a list of parts, of which his firm had
not one single example in its store. This included connecting
rods, crankshafts, roundhead bolts, steering gear, kingpins and
gearsticks. For lack of these replacement parts, half the
Volkswagen fleet of the post office in Düsseldorf and Hanover
was out of action. The Essen main distributor presented various
cases of complaint from the experiences gathered by his workshop.
His suggestions for improvement were individually
discussed and passed to the technical management. 147 Overall
there developed a partnership based on mutual confidence
between the main distributors and the motor manufacturer,
which was partly evident from the amicable relationship
between Gottfried Schultz and Heinrich Nordhoff.
Like the dealer network in the British zone, the service department
also developed in a promising way. Its growing importance
was underlined in the course of 1946 by organisational
reforms, beginning with the subdivision of the service department
into the parts department, the technical department and
the service school. In September 1946 the general manager had
been submitted the idea, presumably by Karl Feuereissen, that
the service department must always be subordinate to Sales,
the reason being that the sole determinant was the car-buyer,
and the entire factory had to be oriented to this fact. This call
for the attitude that "the customer is always right" may have
seemed a little out of place in the conditions of the deficit economy,
but it signalled a gradual change of perspective. In any
case, at the end of 1946, Sales, which had previously been subordinate
to the finance department, was attached to the main
department of Service, and both moved into new premises. 148