HN 2: The British and their Works

The service school began running courses in early February 1946.
After two moves, a large workshop was set up in the basement
of Hall 1 for practical instruction, and a classroom for the theoretical
side. Here both British and German courses were held, the
latter for employees of the post office and railways and for the
fitters at the authorised workshops. The whole was rounded off
with brief courses of instruction for the customers. On account
of the increase in its use, the service school was transferred to
the southern perimeter building in 1947, and extended.
The technical department passed on information to the
authorised workshops about the improvements carried out, and
in 1946 it issued a total of 24 service bulletins, which announced
technical and design modifications as well as repair tips. More
detailed instructions could be found in the repair manual
issued by the technical department in 1947 to aid customer
service in the VW workshops. The technical department also
developed a unique new instruction manual for its less technically
minded customers, entitled "Der sichere VW Fahrer" ("the
safe VW driver"), which made exclusive use of illustrations. By
far the most significant customer service development was a
comprehensive damage register issued in 1947, which emerged
from the monthly analysis of warranty cases, consumer reports
and service reports. Of roughly 3,300 cases of damage registered
in the first six months, all the important ones were reported
to the technical management so that the defects could be
eliminated. As a new measure, new vehicles were also given a
free service check.
The chronic dearth of replacement parts meant that the service
store was of nothing less than strategic importance. This was
not least due to its manager, Schulz, who during the war had
managed a repair workshop and was entirely familiar with
deficit situations. His initiative was indispensable for the
logistic setting up of the spare parts stores. Schultz produced a
new bilingual parts catalogue in German and English, and
against Feuereissen’s will pushed through the introduction of
exchange units. Up until the setting up of the sales system, each
and every replacement part issued to the German dealers required
the approval of Major Hirst. As of October 1946, parts were
supplied via the main distributors, whose requirements could
be more swiftly processed by calling off the stores levels. In order
to satisfy the growing demand for replacement parts as swiftly
as possible, in 1947 a packaging line was set up for British deliveries,
and an electric loading system for assemblies. All these
measures contributed to a more efficient stores administration,
but did little to alleviate the acute shortage of parts. In March
1946 Bosch designated the supplies agreed with Volkswagen an
emergency programme, while admitting frankly that the desired
delivery dates could not be adhered to. In May five to ten per
cent of the required parts were to be delivered. After that the
continuous increase in the production of parts was planned. But
although in 1947 the supply to the service departments of
50,000 parts per month was more than doubled, parts still
remained in short supply. 149
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SERVICE AND SALES