José Arreche (SEAT and CUPRA): ‘We are transforming our minds towards the new electric projects we are going to have in the factory’

In just over two years, José Arreche has demonstrated the suitability of his profile and talent to bring his experience to bear on the new chapter that is opening up for SEAT S.A. Industrial competitiveness and efficiency to achieve the best of both worlds in electrification and internal combustion.

AutoRevista.- Since you took over the management of the Martorell factory, the plant has continued to establish itself as a multi-brand factory. what are the keys to competitiveness in terms of high quality in SEAT, CUPRA and Audi models?

José Arreche.-  Since the three brands belong to the same Group, we don't work differently for each of them. In the end, a production plant has to be very flexible and efficient. For this, we work in two very specific fields. The first and most important is a trained team that knows how to work in other factories, that has experience in manufacturing vehicles in other places. Secondly, to have an intelligent and connected production, being able to take advantage of the volume of data that we generate today so that the production itself becomes more and more autonomous and more and more efficient.

AR.- In the specific case of CUPRA, what is the experience of materialising the idea and design of a brand conceived ‘There is no second’?

J.A.- I have been in Martorell for two years and what impressed me most when I arrived was the spirit of CUPRA, which could be perceived everywhere. It is a brand obsessed with design and the thrill of driving a car with great growth. After 25 years in the industry, coming to a plant that transmits that energy of a new product from a new brand changes your perspective and makes you feel almost the excitement of your first days as a professional in the industry. All CUPRA models, due to their performance, are very demanding cars to manufacture, but we have very stable and flexible processes to tackle the different types of models and manufacture them efficiently.

I have been in Martorell for two years and what impressed me most when I arrived was the spirit of CUPRA, which was everywhere. It is a brand obsessed with design and emotion

AR.- The Martorell plant, together with Volkswagen Navarra, which you know very well, will be the industrial hub, along with the Sagunto gigafactory, of the Future Fast Forward project. From your experience in both factories, what will be the keys to this project driving electric mobility with the value chain in Spain?

J.A.- Throughout my experience, the Martorell and Pamplona plants have worked together and there have always been synergies. However, the investments of the Future Fast Forward project (3,000 million euros in Martorell and 10,000 million in the Iberian Peninsula) that we are putting on the table make the joint work more demanding and intense. There is a constant flow of visits between the heads of both plants in the current prototype phase, as well as with colleagues in Sagunto whom we are also receiving to find the best way to work together.

Creating the urban electric car manufacturing cluster in Spain, with two vehicle production plants and a battery cell plant, is a challenge and, at the same time, an opportunity to coordinate the joint work of three plants with slightly different idiosyncrasies.

AR.- The production of the Small BEV platform is also based on the industrial base in Spain. What challenges will the evolution of the Martorell factory towards electric models, making them compatible with combustion and hybrid models in the medium term entail?

J.A.- It is a very important transition at a mental and training level. We have implemented the biggest training plan I have ever known, with more than 400,000 hours, in two ways. One is pure technical knowledge, knowledge of the electric vehicle and how to manufacture it (with some 300,000 hours of training), and a second towards agility, towards a change of culture, towards digitalisation (130,000 hours of training), which is allowing us to transform our minds towards the new projects that we are going to have in the factory. By combining the production of electric and combustion models, we will be able to have the best of both worlds, adapting to the speed of the evolution of electrification in Spain and Europe.-

We have implemented the biggest training plan I have ever known, with more than 400,000 hours, which goes in two directions: pure technical knowledge and a change of culture

AR.- One of the big news in the short term will be the launch of the CUPRA Raval. What will this model mean for the factory?

J.A.- This model, in what is going to be the first electric urban vehicle in Spain, will mean, just as SEAT did by putting Spain on wheels in the 1960s, the opportunity to put Spain on electric wheels and to generate a cluster of manufacturers and suppliers that will help transform the country. It is an exciting project because of the social change it could bring about, and we are working to achieve it as quickly and as well as possible.

AR.- What is the competitive advantage of having Design, Development and Technical Centre areas in such a compact nucleus in a perimeter as well-defined as Martorell?

J.A.- Working in advance on product development in alignment with the plant that is going to manufacture them is really easy in Martorell, because we are close and together in a space that is not excessively large. The relationship between the Technical Centre, the manufacturing centre and the technical bodies within Production that help in the development of the vehicle work so closely that we can react very quickly in the design and development to any variation. All of this translates into a very important competitive advantage, which makes the Martorell complex an example to follow and we are seeing it in the development of this electric vehicle cluster.

Martorell is an example to follow and we are seeing it in the development of this electric vehicle cluster

AR.- The Group's multi-brand strategy is taking SEAT and CUPRA models to other factories. How do you combine Martorell's manufacturing expertise with other Group plants to ensure the brand's identity regardless of the production site?

J.A.- The Volkswagen Group's platform policy is a very smart way of looking for manufacturing synergies, with a recent example being the CUPRA Terramar, which is already being manufactured in Györ (Hungary) together with Audi's Q3 on the same platform. Everyone in the Group is used to working in other factories and with other models, which has been a constant for many years. The Group favours being able to move to other plants and work with other brands in the company, so we all know, to a greater or lesser extent, each of them. Synergies are generated with a focus on making the best possible production.

AR.- In recent years, Martorell has taken significant steps in Industry 4.0, digitalisation, monitoring of production flows and sustainability in the use of photovoltaic energy, how will you continue to deepen these vectors?

J.A.- With the SEAT al Sol II project, focused on tripling renewable energy generation capacity, we are working towards the goal of being CO2 neutral in our facilities by 2040 and totallyCO2 neutral as a company by 2050. We are also working with suppliers to decarbonise logistics and all its processes, complying with the Paris Agreements to avoid increasing the planet's temperature by two degrees compared to the pre-industrial era. All these goals are fundamental and part of the pathway, and when we talk about electrification they go hand in hand. We have to achieve electrification while being, above all,CO2 neutral. The year 2023 means a record reduction in emissions and waste at our plant, as well as a reduction in electricity consumption. One does not work without the other. We cannot advance in our business model if we do not do so in the decarbonisation of our production process.

AR.- SEAT S.A.'s upcoming projects have highlighted the importance of a high degree of supplier localisation from the approach of robust supply chains and high manufacturing efficiency, what is being required from the manufacturing management to suppliers?

J.A.- When we talk about decarbonising, the first step is to do it ourselves and, secondly, with the whole vehicle value chain. We are a good incentive, because we demand certain improvements from each of our suppliers. We are going to be the cart that pulls the rest of the industry towards decarbonisation. Locating suppliers as close as possible, with an average distance radius of 300 kilometres, is an important step forward in terms of sustainability, in addition to the improvement we are going to incorporate with shorter quality circles that will allow us to react better to any situation.

AR.- Your professional career has taken you outside Spain, to Autoeuropa in Portugal, and even to contribute to the Group's vehicle manufacturing strategy for China. What is the balance of both experiences and, with regard to China, how do you think the European industry should boost its competitiveness in the new international scenario?

J.A.- From 2011 to 2014, I was responsible for the industrialisation of projects in China and even then the growth of the automotive industry in the country, which has now slowed down a little, was incredible. China is no longer just growing in its own territory, but is starting to come to Europe. At SEAT, we believe that the way forward is through collaboration, creating opportunities based on the know-how coming from China that we can implement in Europe. We should not see it as a threat, but as an opportunity. When I worked on projects ten years ago, we were the ones taking technology to China, and nowadays, in some cases, it is the other way around. The positioning of the Volkswagen Group and SEAT S.A., with its two brands, is focused on greater competitiveness in a free market.

Dialogue and agility in decision-making

An industrial engineer specialising in the application of Industry 4.0 technologies, José Arreche began his career at Volkswagen Navarra, where he held numerous positions until he was appointed, in 2018, Director of Planning. Throughout his career, Arreche has also led projects for the Group: for three years, he managed the implementation of sheet metal projects at Volkswagen's factories in China from Wolfsburg. He became head of the Martorell plant in autumn 2022, with the challenge of driving the transformation of the factory to produce electric vehicles in Martorell from 2025 onwards.

José Arreche's leadership style is characterised, as he himself says, ‘by being very open to dialogue, very transparent and conciliatory, but, at the same time, I try to make it very executive, in the sense of making decisions. With humility and the conviction that there are people who are going to know certain issues better than you, I believe that honesty is fundamental, being quick in making decisions’.

In the personal sphere, Arreche stresses that ‘you have to reconcile and enjoy every moment, whether you have a lot of free time or not. Outside of work, I have three pillars: family, the ‘cuadrilla’ as we Navarrese say, and sport. The first two help you to always keep your feet on the ground, which is fundamental. Sport, running and cycling, helps me a lot to refresh my mind, which I often do with friends’.

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Interview published in AutoRevista 2.396