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Chattanooga: Carmaker names city plant boss

By: Mike Pare
(Contact)

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Volkswagen has named the manager of one of the biggest axle manufacturing facilities in the world under one roof as the plant manager of its planned Chattanooga site.

Frank Fischer, 46, also has been appointed head of the project team for the new $1 billion Volkswagen assembly plant set for Chattanooga’s Enterprise South industrial park.

He’ll take the new post Oct. 1, according to VW.

“He’ll be the top person,” said VW spokeswoman Jill Bratina. The plant is to open by early 2011.

Mr. Fischer oversees Volkwagen’s component plant in Brunswick, Germany. The first VW plant was set up in Brunswick 70 years ago, the company said.

Mr. Fischer holds engineering degrees from RWTH Aachen and the University of Washington in Seattle.

He joined Volkswagen Group in 1991, first sharing responsibility for strategic issues and competition comparisons before becoming head of body construction at the Wolfsburg, Germany, plant.

He moved to Emden, Germany, as production manager in 2001. Mr. Fischer has been plant manager at Brunswick (Braunschweig), Germany, since March 2005.

At the end of December 2007, the Brunswick Volkswagen plant had about 5,700 employees, VW said.

The plant is known for highly developed technical know-how and is one of the world’s largest chassis components operations, according to VW.

Activities range from development to final assembly. The Brunswick business unit is one of the most important system suppliers for the Volkswagen Group’s vehicle-building factories worldwide, the company said.

Parts produced in Brunswick are fitted in almost all of the Volkswagen Group’s models. The components manufacturing division produces front and rear axles, shock absorbers, steering units and plastic parts. In addition, complex modules, machines, systems and dies are manufactured as well.

Plastic parts have been made at the Brunswick plant since 1983. Each day, 120 injection molding machines, four assembly lines and two paint shops turn 49 tons of granulated plastic into 420 products ranging from dashboards and flaps to pedal housings.

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