The Audi Ideas Program received a massive amount of suggestions regarding the working environment from employees, with approximately 15,000 being implemented in 2017. The result of this is a savings of €108.6 million for the factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm; this in turn is a 23.4 per cent improvement over the year before that.

The Audi Ideas Program in the current form has been around since 1994, although an employee suggestion scheme in general has been practised for 50 years.

Now, an employee can follow the trace of the suggestion and its progress online, ensuring transparency. Deliberation are done by experts from the relevant departments and directly decide its implementation. The employee does get a financial reward for suggestions that are implemented, the amount determined by savings achieved.

Some examples listed by Audi are one by two auto-mechatronic apprentices (pic above) had the idea of marking torque‑wrench sockets green and red. The colour system eases the fitting of the sockets, prevents the wrong use of the tool and therefore saves time.

Another two employees proposed that instead of keeping the ventilation system on all the time, it should be reduced when no one is around. Now, the ventilation is switched on during the week only from 6am to 10pm, saving Audi €100,000 annually.

Three employees in quality assurance reduced the time required to adjust the measuring instruments from 34 minutes to just 18 minutes for each vehicle door. Now, 200 working hours are saved each year simply by using their suggestion.