Procurement and Supply chain

Procurement and Supply chain

The Audi supply chain is complex. In order to successfully meet the environmental, human rights, and due diligence targets, Audi requires strong partner companies along the supply chain. Sustainable action in complex manufacturing processes is only possible when all partners work together as equals in pursuing the same goal. Therefore, Audi supports its suppliers – over 14,000 from around 60 countries, in implementing sustainability in their operations. The company’s environmental, social, and compliance guidelines, defined in the Code of Conduct for Business Partners, form the basis for collaboration and are integral to its risk assessment processes. Audi closely monitors its supply chains to identify potential risks, also harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to do so.

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Semiconductors are becoming the neurons of our cars
Strategic topics
06/14/2024

Semiconductors are becoming the neurons of our cars

Semiconductors can be found throughout modern cars, from the engine control and driver assistance and safety systems such as proximity radar and ESP to the infotainment system. An electric Audi or Volkswagen today contains up to 8,000 of them. These essential chips are a critical component of innovation in the automotive industry. Hand in hand with the Volkswagen Group and technology leaders from the microelectronics industry, Audi is shaping the future of mobility. To this end, the company held the third Semiconductor Summit, under the title “Innovation needs Coopetition” on June 11. In this interview, Audi Board Member for Procurement Renate Vachenauer and Volkswagen Member for Procurement Dirk Große-Loheide discuss coopetition, whether the Group’s semiconductor strategy has been successful, and why much remains to be done for Europe as a center for automotive semiconductors.
Pilot project glass recycling
Company
04/25/2022

Pilot project started: Faulty car glass to be turned into new windowpanes for the Audi Q4 e-tron

Faulty car windows often go in the recycling bin when the cracked part cannot be fixed. A closed material circuit does not yet exist for damaged car glass. This is where Audi and its partner companies Reiling Glas Recycling, Saint-Gobain Glass, and Saint-Gobain Sekurit are now doing pioneering work as part of a joint pilot project. The partner companies want to turn the damaged auto glass into recyclable material for model production and have drawn up a multi-stage process for that purpose: using an innovative recycling process, the car windows are first broken into small pieces. Then all the non-glass impurities like glue residue are eliminated. The resulting glass granulate is melted down and turned into new plate glass. That plate glass is then turned into a new car window. If this pilot is successful, the windows that are produced this way will be used in models in the Audi Q4 e-tron series in the future.
Audi employees are coaching sustainable startups: Award ceremony for the European Impact Hero
Strategic topics
11/12/2021

Audi employees are coaching sustainable startups: Award ceremony for the European Impact Hero

The Day of the Heroes had finally arrived: the European Impact Hero had been chosen. Together with its partners Audi, Volkswagen, SAP, and Microsoft Germany, the Center for Open Social Innovation (COSI) invited to the closing event of this six-month ideas program for sustainable startups yesterday. In rounds of pitches, ten finalists presented their ideas and concepts concerning climate neutrality, circular economies, and supply-chain management. Corporate volunteers from Audi and its other partners had coached them for the occasion. Sabine Maassen, Board Member for Human Resources and Organization at AUDI AG, says: “That is living corporate social responsibility – and it pays into the working environment of tomorrow.”
Audi and KIT are working on recycling method for automotive plastics
Company
06/17/2021

A new lease on life: recycling automotive plastics

As part of the THINKTANK Industrial Resource Strategies, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have been working with Audi for a good six months on the pilot project “Chemical Recycling of plastics from automotive manufacturing.” Now that the project has been completed, it is clear that the Chemical Recycling of mixed plastic waste is both technically feasible and environmentally and financially promising. The plastic waste from automotive manufacturing can be processed into pyrolysis oil and could replace petroleum as a raw material for the production of high-quality plastic components in Audi models. The material cycles closed in this way save valuable resources, energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As such, Chemical Recycling represents a viable alternative to energy recovery and complements mechanical processing. In this way, Audi could use fossil resources for longer and thus scale back the procurement of additional fossil resources accordingly. Together with partners from the chemical industry and KIT, Audi now plans to take the next step and research the industrialization of this cycle.
Audi and THINKTANK at KIT are working on recycling method for automotive plastics
Company
11/23/2020

Audi and KIT are working on recycling method for automotive plastics

A large number of components in automobiles are made from plastics. They have to meet exacting safety, heat resistance and quality requirements. That is why, so far, only petroleum-based materials have been suitable for manufacturing plastic components in automobiles that are subjected to particularly intensive wear. Such materials are not recyclable in most cases. Whereas plastics of the same type can often be mechanically recycled, recycling of mixed plastic waste poses a major challenge. Audi and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) are therefore launching a pilot project for chemical recycling as part of the “Industrial Resource Strategies” THINKTANK in order to feed such mixed plastic fractions back into a resource-conserving circular system.
Audi e-tron Production at the CO2-neutral plant of Audi Brussels
Company
07/25/2019

Audi and Hydro: joint commitment to sustainable aluminum

The supply chain of the Audi e-tron* is becoming more sustainable: The aluminum producer Hydro now supplies sustainable aluminum for the battery housing of the first fully electric model of the company. The material is processed and manufactured along the entire process chain in an environmentally friendly manner and under socially acceptable working conditions. This has been confirmed by the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) with a “chain of custody” certificate. The ASI already awarded Audi a certificate for the sustainable assembly of these aluminum components in October 2018. This means that the aluminum sheets processed in the battery housing of the Audi e-tron are now demonstrably produced in a responsible manner along the entire value chain, from the extraction of the bauxite raw material to the end product.

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Renate Vachenauer

Renate Vachenauer

Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG for Procurement

Biography