Italian brand’s revamped factory and new production processes point way to new standards
Currently, only 15 Tonales a day roll down the production line
Consistency of quality is ensured by a ‘master block’
Attention to detail on factory line has been raised to Porsche levels
Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato was on fighting form when we met him at the new facility that’s ramping up to full-scale production of the Tonale crossover. “It’s world- class everything: a premium plant for premium products,” he pithily summarised.
Imparato was extremely keen to deliver his message that the recently unveiled Tonale is unlike any past Alfa Romeo, thanks to hitherto unseen levels of deeply rooted quality and precision assembly.
The Giambattista Vico plant – part of the Pomigliano d’Arco facility near Naples that makes the Fiat Panda – is effectively all new, with only “the shape of building remaining”.
Alfa’s historic reputational issues were clearly at the front of Imparato’s mind during our tour of the plant, which was in its final day of pre-production mode, carefully assembling just 15 Tonales per day.
For Autocar Business webinars and podcasts, visit Autocar Business Live
Alfa has specially selected 425 workers – those who are “proud to be part of the tribe” – and they’ve undergone a collective 19,000 hours of training for building Tonales.
One of the training stations shows workers how to correctly clip together the wide range of electrical connectors in the car. It’s no good Alfa having monthly meetings with suppliers to ensure the consistent quality of components when the fault is actually a badly fitted clip.
The production lines are new from the ground up. Imparato said all the workstations have been redesigned to make the assembly process easier, while new tools have been designed to enable a “precise and methodical job”.
The new plant, which Alfa would only say cost “hundreds of millions”, has a substantially electrified production line, so it’s much quieter than before. It has also been designed to be much more pleasant to work in.
For example, the workstation that deals with underbody assembly (one of 160 in total) has been rethought so that workers don’t have to hold their arms above shoulder height.
Of the 750 or so new robots on the Tonale line, the level of investment in ensuring super-accuracy was best seen in the workstation that glues the windscreen to the painted bodyshell. There are no fewer than 12 robots and laser alignment involved in the instalment, which takes a number of operations and clearly isn’t being rushed.
One of the other notably expensive and precise new workstations handles what Imparato calls the marriage, where the running gear (engine and suspension) arrives under the bodyshell and is lifted upwards to be secured to the structure. Clearly, this is one area where the tiniest deviation could bolt quality problems firmly into place.
As impressively clean and bright as the new assembly plant is, the most arresting aspect of the Tonale’s quality story is the solid-aluminium master tool of the body. This is known by the German term meister bock; master block seems a good translation. It’s made of substantial chunks of aluminium and milled into shape to 0.07mm precision.
Alfa is following the practice of German brands like Audi and Porsche in having a super- stable master block that can be referred to if errors start creeping into production.
One example shown was a problem with the fitting of the light cluster attached to the rear quarter and the matching cluster attached to the tailgate.
The master block also creates a focus for meetings with component suppliers, enabling real-world examination of problems.
Imparato also points out that the Tonale master block sits just 150 metres from the production line, allowing quick reference if problems arise.
One of the managers said the master block technology is pretty much identical to what’s used by the Sauber- run Alfa Romeo Racing Formula 1 team and the aerospace industry.
Alfa also makes 3D scans of the fitted car interior. The resulting image is colour-coded: green for within tolerance, yellow for close to the edge of the permitted tolerance and red for out of tolerance.
Another quality area is a series of heavily lit bays for examining the fit and finish of a car coming off the production line and details such as the door- closing noise.
Indeed, all the finished cars undergo electrical tests, static finish checks, testing of the engine, gearbox and brakes and a high-intensity water-sealing test before being run on a short test track at the factory.
The work on the quality of the bodyshell goes beyond geometric accuracy (although this is wisely seen as non- negotiable for competing in the global premium market), with Alfa also claiming big advances at the new body shop where it’s assembled.
This uses the latest ‘3D vision’ laser-welding technology and more attention is being paid to the sealing of the flanges where body panels meet and are welded and how the underside is sealed.
Even after all that, Alfa has set up a very interesting post-delivery quality checking system. It has selected 12 dealers with which it will have very close contact in order to track with “precise info” any customer complaints or warranty claims.
Imparato says the intention is to visit the dealer to see the issue with the car, and this direct feedback will allow Alfa to react to problems “within 24 hours”. It’s intended that this 12-dealer feedback network will be rapidly expanded.
Apparently, an early version of this approach to post-sale issues has already been tried at the nearby Cassino plant (which builds the Alfa Romeo Giulia saloon and Stelvio SUV) and post-sales claims have dropped by a third, against a target of two-thirds within the year.
Even allowing for PR polishing, there’s no doubting the huge effort that has gone into creating a bodyshell that’s very finely constructed and gives the potential buyer a sense of deep quality even on first acquaintance.
The new Tonale operation (this plant is exclusively for the crossover) is clearly tightly integrated and focused on getting one car very right.
Lifting the curse of the Alfasud
Jean-Philippe Imparato, who has been Alfa Romeo CEO for only 14 months, accompanied the press on the first occasion that Alfa’s brand-new factory in southern Italy had been seen by people outside of the Stellantis empire. In a previous guise, this building once hosted production of the 147 – one of nine different Alfa models made at the site since it was opened in 1972, initially to make the radical Alfasud.
In fact, a total of 3.8 million Alfas have passed through the factory gates.
Infamously, the Alfasud project (named in reference to Alfa beginning production in the less prosperous south of Italy) wasn’t a happy one. While the compact four door wowed the press and keen drivers, its build quality was abysmal and the workforce was rebellious.
Arguably, the debacle has haunted Alfa ever since, with virtually all subsequent models tainted to a degree by the Alfasud’s reputation for rampant rust and electrical fragility.
“I want to destroy this history,” Imparato said with some force. “I don’t want to hear again this condescending and patronising ‘it’s an Italian car’. When this perception is gone, Alfa will fly.”
The issue is personal to the Frenchman, thanks to his Alfisti father: “In the 1970s, he used to say to me ‘I need two cars to make one [good one]’, and he eventually moved to another premium brand, a German one.”
Imparato concluded: “The reason I’m showing this plant today is to show the advances we’ve made. This technology is more associated with Formula 1 and aerospace than the car industry.”
A huge investment
The fearsome emphasis on quality is being overseen by PSA Group veteran Sandrine Gredelu, who worked at the Rennes and Poissy plants, latterly overseeing the Citroën C5 Aircross and Peugeot 5008 models.
She acknowledged to Autocar that the Tonale approach is something of an experiment within Stellantis, as the attention to detail goes further than it would for a mainstream brand, but that comes at a significant cost, and such an investment needs to be paid back.
One of the new mantras of the plan is to “never receive, produce or receive a defect”. The three-pronged approach comprises the suppliers not sending defective parts, the Alfa factory not introducing defects and the buyer not receiving a defective car.
Perhaps the biggest real- world test for any aspiring premium brand is to have the confidence of the used car market three years down the line. Alfa boss Jean Philippe Imparato told Autocar that the quality and durability of the Tonale production cars will be examined closely after three years and 37,000 miles.
“I have a high sense of responsibility [with the Tonale],” he said. “This is a huge investment for Alfa.”
It’s also one that will have to be seen to be paying off under the hard-headed leadership of Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares.
Keyword: How Alfa Romeo hopes to improve quality on Tonale SUV