The VW native has been Head of Purchasing at Audi since April, having previously been responsible for procurement on the brand board at Volkswagen.
(Photo: Volkswagen)
Dusseldorf After the new Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume had already reorganized the software strategy, the new CEO Oliver Blume is now also making personnel changes: On Tuesday, Europe’s largest car manufacturer announced that he was filling the post of head of purchasing.
From January 1, 2023, Dirk Große-Loheide will take over the management of Group Purchasing. In this role, the 58-year-old will also be responsible for purchasing for the core Volkswagen brand. The manager takes over the task from Murat Aksel, who had to give up his position on the board of the Volkswagen Group in September.
Aksel was increasingly criticized in the chip crisis. At the peak of the semiconductor shortage, Volkswagen suffered from serious supply problems, and production lines stood still for weeks. Thousands of employees had to go on short-time work. Global passenger car sales by Volkswagen fell by more than six percent to 8.6 million units last year.
VW purchasing manager Große-Loheide should stabilize the supply chains
One of the reasons for the low delivery figures is that the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg is not nearly working to capacity. Große-Loheide will have to solve this problem. Supply security is an important concern for VW boss Blume. “Ensuring robust supply chains is crucial to the success of a global group like Volkswagen,” said Blume.
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The group has found a follow-up use for Aksel. He becomes purchasing director at VW’s commercial vehicle subsidiary MAN. There he succeeds Stefan Gramse. It is unclear what function Gramse will assume within the Volkswagen Group. The message only says that Gramse will take on “a corporate function”.
Aksel will also have to deal with problems with the supply of parts at MAN. Missing wiring harnesses from the Ukraine had given MAN a hard time after the Russian attack on the country.
Volkswagen’s new chief purchasing officer, Große-Loheide, has been with Volkswagen since 1990. Between October 2019 and April 2020 he was already responsible for purchasing the VW brand. Most recently, Große-Loheide was responsible for procurement and IT at Audi. He will continue to perform this task on an interim basis until a successor is appointed at Audi.
The manager will also be appointed to the “extended group management” at Volkswagen, “in which the group will bundle the cross-sectional functions of purchasing and production, quality and sales as well as design and development,” according to the company’s announcement. With the reorganization, Volkswagen wants to strengthen purchasing in persistently volatile times. According to Blume, Große-Loheide has already shown with the Volkswagen and Audi brands that he can effectively manage purchasing.
The VW boss emphasizes Große-Loheide’s international experience in purchasing. “His task will be to further stabilize the supply chains in close cooperation with the suppliers so that we can deliver the products to our customers as quickly as possible,” Blume is quoted as saying in the group’s statement.
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