Emilio Titos: "Without dreams, you cannot live"

Throughout his extensive professional career, Emilio Titos has dreamt of how to design efficient and competitive factories, making the most of technology, but with the value of people as a maxim. After completing a stage in which he has placed Mercedes-Benz Vitoria at the forefront of his speciality, he continues to impart his knowledge in various entities.

AutoRevista.-  How did your vocation to the world of industrial engineering awaken?

Emilio Titos.- In 1968, my father, who was working in Germany, decided to take me there. I was born in Piñar, in the Eastern Mountains of Granada, where I was able to get to the baccalaureate, fourth year of secondary school, with good marks, but without the possibility of continuing because my parents could not afford the cost of my studies. I received an offer to study with a scholarship from the Jesuits, but my father's decision was to take me to Germany with my mother what was normal at the time, especially as I came from a humble family, where my grandfather and my father were farmers.

In Germany, you could work from the age of 14 and I started my career in a factory, cleaning automated machines for customised machining plants and machining centres for various applications. The challenge was to do that first job well, but that experience made me eager to learn as much as possible with the difficulties of learning in a different language. I met two people who gave me the opportunity of a lifetime.

 On the one hand, an apprentice master who encouraged me to join a dual training school, where I became a mechanic on the aforementioned machining centres. I learned like a sponge everything about the design, manufacture and assembly of the machines, in parallel with the theoretical part with a small salary in Germany. This teacher encouraged me to do my baccalaureate, so that for a time I studied at the apprentice school and completed the training that I had not been able to receive in Spain during the evenings. The head of studies there was a great help to me, the second key person in the origin of my professional career. This double preparation led me to engineering, which was a dream for me, and to mechanics, which I loved.

AR.- You channelled your vocation at university level.

E.T.- In 1977, after finishing my A-levels, I entered the University of Wuppertal to study for a degree in engineering, where several large corporations were looking for new talent and the opportunity arose to work for Daimler Benz AG in the Düsseldorf factory. I agreed to continue studying for a master’s degree in Industrial Organisation. When I joined the company in 1982, in my first stage I worked at the Düsseldorf plant as an assembly engineer to move the vans that were manufactured in Bremen to this location. I was also part of a McKinsey-led task force for a year optimising the overall costs of the Düsseldorf plant.

AR.- Did you always have the idea of growing with new responsibilities at Daimler?

E.T.- In my first stage, we agreed that, if my work was satisfactory, I would be promoted to head of department, but, although I met the objectives, there was no agreement. I had other job offers, both in Germany and in Spain, one of them from the Mercedes Benz factory in Vitoria. This plant had a certain degree of autonomy from the parent company and manufactured a vehicle derived from a product of Auto Union (Audi-Volkswagen) at the time. 

This was an MB 100 vehicle (MEVOSA, Mercedes Volkswagen SA), which had been in production since 1954-1955. The idea was to launch a new MB 100 for the Spanish market with a restructuring of the plant to also house a Mitsubishi van, with the idea of selling the factory to this Japanese manufacturer. between 1985 and 1988, with the idea of selling the factory to this Japanese manufacturer. I took on the responsibility of carrying out this project, providing Mitsubishi's product with Mercedes' quality and safety qualities, and making it compatible with the MB 100 for the Spanish market, with the corresponding integral work of adapting the factory with new installations with their respective dies and tooling. 

After the complete overhaul of the factory, Daimler Benz decided not only not to sell it to Mitsubishi, but also to export the MB 100 designed for the Spanish market to Europe at the end of the 1980s, producing some 30,000 units a year. All this was possible thanks to a reorganisation of the working schemes which, before the restructuring, were not in a position to compete on equal terms with other European plants either in terms of training or technology. Fortunately, an agreement was reached with the trade unions, which led to a phase of significant growth and social peace.

After the complete overhaul of the factory, Daimler Benz decided not only not to sell it to Mitsubishi, but also to export the MB 100 designed for the Spanish market to Europe at the end of the 1980s

For the next stage, a decision was taken to design a product that had nothing to do with what we had been doing until then and which was characterised by a chassis integrated into the bodywork of what we called the MPV, in what was the birth of the V-Class and the Vito. This meant expanding the plant in bodywork, paintwork and final assembly, as well as adapting processes that were carried out in Germany to our reality, which was my great task as head of engineering.

I closed my eyes and dreamt of what the factory would be like in 30 years' time, which meant doubling its production area and integrating suppliers into the value chain, gaining efficiency. It was also important to automate with two objectives. On the one hand, in product quality and, on the other, in the integration of people, which entailed a training challenge. We made a dream come true. Miracles are possible, but they cost a lot with the effort of many people. We once again reached an agreement on the social side, which resulted in a high level of investment, with a high return for the automotive industry in the Basque Country and in Spain. You can't live without dreams.

AR.- How did your leadership style develop?

E.T.- In those years, there was a great factory team, but engineering was a bit lamer and I gave my all to strengthen it, from a leadership role as an engineer, because technology fascinates me. That leadership has been changing from a clearly technological profile, while the emotional and people-oriented one has grown as my responsibilities have increased.

In my latest phase, I have focused on finding out why people have problems. I gave myself a 100-day timeframe in which I talked to every manager in the management team in the factory. I detected the shortcomings with the aim of reinventing ourselves through dialogue and active listening in order to put the best ideas into practice.

AR.- After the launch of the second generation V-Class and Vito, you are returning to Germany.

E.T.- Daimler asked me to carry out the transformation of the Berlin plant and the challenge of converting a second factory doesn't happen every day. I replicated what I had done in Vitoria with a team that I set up myself with a high degree of autonomy and I worked during the period 2003-2006. We launched the new Sprinter with a transformed factory.

AR.- A new experience in Germany before returning to Vitoria.

E.T.- I returned as General Manager of Production for a year and in 2007 I became responsible for the factory as a whole. Again, the challenge was to give stability and robustness to the processes and training to the people, a key factor in achieving the former. I focused on developing the dual training concept in the Basque Country in 2013-2014. I saw the need to implement dual vocational training in the factory, which is the key to the success of industry in Germany. 

Technology is the tool, but the enablers of change for process innovation are people. In 2014, I reached an agreement with the Lehendakari Íñigo Urkullu to introduce dual training in the factory and after the approval of a legal framework at state level during the government of Mariano Rajoy, after further talks with the Basque Government, we were able to implement a dual form in which the Administration regulated the process and the company actively applied it. We reached an agreement with Egibide (a state-subsidised school) for Vocational Training, which taught the theoretical part, while in the factory there were Mercedes-Benz teachers for the practical part. It was a resounding success in the training of technicians and, in addition, we reinforced the lean concept, for which I went to Japan to learn. It is a concept that respects resources as well as the management structure, applying the experience of those responsible for each process with a focus on quality for the end customer.

In 2014, I reached an agreement with the lehendakari Íñigo Urkullu to introduce dual training in the factory

We created a laboratory in the factory where we could experiment and combine the training acquired by the people with innovation in processes to draw conclusions with which to provide feedback for present and future projects and technologies. A concept of industrial organisation was developed, thanks to which the Vitoria plant has a relevant position in the company.

I have managed to get the universities of Deusto, Mondragón and the Basque Country (UPV) to work with Mercedes-Benz Vitoria on industrial projects, which has meant a leap in the factory's competitiveness with continuous innovation in processes. In collaboration with Deusto, the entire paint plant has been digitalised, predicting quality based on data; with Mondragón, we have implemented preventive maintenance in the body shop; and with the UPV, we have developed collaborative robotics. We have also automated logistics with filoguided trolleys. All of this is thanks to the knowledge of the people. 

AR.- How was the experience of Vitoria pioneering an electric vehicle such as the Vito eCell in 2010?

E.T.- In that year, electrification was still at a very early stage and that project cost a significant investment, from which we learned a lot and, in effect, we were pioneers. At the process level, there were no problems integrating it into the manufacturing processes. We are talking about an electric vehicle as a transition to the vehicle of the future, of which it will be necessary to know where the energy comes from and whether this energy can be used for the benefit of society. We also need to assess the possibility of other forms of energy such as synthetic fuels or other technologies to achieve decarbonisation that the customer can afford.

AR.- What does it mean to have been part of a company like Mercedes-Benz for 40 years?

E.T.- From the very first moment and throughout, I have had the confidence of Daimler, so I feel very honoured and privileged. For my part, I have worked with total dedication and it has paid off. I have contributed to create know-how, to integrate, to collaborate at all levels and thus to give the best product, within the automotive world, with this MPV to our customers. The Vitoria factory was not relevant in the industrial context and has now become recognised as the most desirable company for young people to work for. 

We went from being a factory with no future to being at the forefront. The company has given me everything and I think it has always known how to respond

Talent is measured, it is well paid and an infrastructure has been created so that they can develop their skills and potential. It gives me great satisfaction to be able to have done that and it can only be done if the numbers work, getting a factory that used to produce ten vans to produce 600 people carriers and vans a day. We have gone from being a factory with no future to being at the forefront. The company has given me everything and I think it has always been able to respond.

Knowledge for the factory of the future

With the culmination of the Mercedes-Benz Vitoria stage still very recent, Emilio Titos has taken on, at the proposal of the Provincial Council of Alava, the presidency of Robotekin, the Basque Association of Robotics and Automation, "with the aim of generating a knowledge hub. It is an association of companies designed to share knowledge, something we are not used to. I am delighted to continue advising companies and leaders on what the factory of the future will be like".  He also brings his experience to Deusto Lab, to connect the needs of companies with the academic world. He is also a member of the board of directors and vice-president of the Northern Zone of the Association for Progress in Management (APD).

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Interview published in AutoRevista 2.385