Quality Planner, LÄPPLE Automotive
INTERVIEW WITH Nicolai Tuischer

Can you give us a brief account of your professional career so far?

In 2011, I finished my precision machinist training course and then spent some time working in maintenance. In 2014, I began training as a technician. After successfully completing my training, I started work at LÄPPLE AUTOMOTIVE in Heilbronn.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in engineering?

I chose a career in engineering because I always wanted to do something that was hands-on. The metalworking industry seemed the perfect fit for me, as there are always new developments in this field that I find really exciting.

So why did you choose LÄPPLE?

I decided to work for LÄPPLE because it’s got all the advantages of a typical medium-sized enterprise, and because I thought the number of employees it had was just right.

What exactly do you do at LÄPPLE AUTOMOTIVE?

I work in Quality Assurance and Quality Planning. This involves the preparation and delivery of test instructions and documentation requested by the customer. We also maintain contact with suppliers and other departments in order to clearly document all processes.

What is the best thing about your job?

What I love about quality planning is that I’m always coming into contact with new technologies which I can learn about in detail. I can also watch as the tools and systems we use are developed further. As a quality planner, you experience this first-hand. You get to observe the entire development process from the very start because everything has to be documented.

Does the increasing application of digital systems in your line of work have any advantages?

Thanks to these new technologies, we are able to work more closely with our customers than ever before. For example, today it allows us to send measurement reports and programs directly to our customers’ systems.

With which other LÄPPLE companies do you work particularly closely?

In the LÄPPLE Group, we work very closely with our plant in Teublitz. We regularly coordinate with production staff there, as we ship components from Heilbronn to Teublitz for further treatment and vice versa. We maintain a direct line to their Quality Assurance staff and their other departments. This system of collaboration works perfectly.

What excites you about technology?

What I like about technology is that I am always discovering how tools and systems work, what level of process reliability they offer and how quickly we can gauge the manufacturing quality of a component. Precision is an especially important sign of quality. In order to prevent deviations from specifications, our measuring machines can achieve a precision down to mere hundredths of a millimetre. And that’s just one example!