To manage the impact of the war in Ukraine on its supply chains Skoda says it has worked with the affected suppliers to partially relocate cable harness production to its plant at Mladá Boleslav. In addition, the OEM says it has secured additional production capacities in Morocco and Romania. The company notes that these measures will allow production capacity to be doubled and provide the flexibility to respond to potential supply bottlenecks

Cable harness production at Skoda

Harness supplier PEKM Kabeltechnik built the necessary production equipment in assembly halls at Mladá Boleslav, with manufacturing gradually ramped up from the beginning of April

Harness supplier PEKM Kabeltechnik built the necessary production equipment in assembly halls at Mladá Boleslav, with manufacturing gradually ramped up from the beginning of April. The production facilities are staffed by 35 women from the Ukrainian plant in Lviv, who are now training new employees. The company says it had to suspend production of the Enyaq iV for eight weeks in March due to a shortage of cable harnesses caused by war-related supply bottlenecks.

The addition supply of harnesses will come from Kromberg & Schubert’s Moroccan plant in Kenitra near Rabat. This supplier has also increased the number of cable harnesses manufactured at its Ukrainian plant in Zhytomyr.

Skoda says it is also planning to duplicate the production of high-voltage cable harnesses required to charge electric vehicles. From the end of June, these will be manufactured in Romania. From September onwards, production from the plant in Khmelnyskyj, Ukraine, will also be duplicated after consultation within the Volkswagen Group: The cable harnesses for the Octavia and Superb models will then also be produced in Tangier, Morocco.

Karsten Schnake, Board Member for Purchasing at ŠKODA AUTO, emphasises: “At ŠKODA AUTO, we have been working very closely with our partners over the past few weeks to minimise the impact of the war in Ukraine on the supply of cable harnesses. With great dedication, we managed to resume production in Ukraine within a short period and also significantly increase manufacturing capacities. I would like to thank the entire team and all the suppliers involved for this achievement. At the same time, I can assure our Ukrainian partners that we are and will remain fully committed to them. They have our utmost respect for continuing to supply us as the circumstances permit

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