instrumentation and test systems
›› NEW EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
FOR TEST SYSTEMS
AND GLOBAL OPERATIONS ‹‹
On July 1, 2017, Urs Gerspach was appointed Executive Vice President
for the Instrumentation and Test Systems (ITS) business unit and assumed responsibility
for the business units Powertrain Test Systems and Electrification and Racing Test Systems,
as well as the central functions Global Purchasing, Global Operations and Quality
and Process Management. In an interview with Focus, he talks about his experience so far,
his plans for expanding and strengthening project organization, the perfect turnkey project
‹F.›: Mr. Gerspach, you were
head of the AVL Test Factory – the
test facility in Graz is one of the
most advanced of its kind in the
world – and now you’ve been appointed
2 2 F O C U S
Executive Vice President
for the business unit ITS and are
responsible for the business units
Powertrain Test Systems and Electrification
and Racing Test Systems,
as well as the central functions
Global Purchasing, Global
Operations and Quality and Process
Management. Are there things
you’ve brought with you to your
new role from the time you spent
at the AVL Test Factory?
‹Gerspach›: AVL today runs more
than 260 AVL testbeds in 27 Tech
Centers. During my time as global department
manager of Test Factories,
I was responsible for all of them and
I learned a great deal about testbed
operation, and also about different
cultures around the world. Every
year, AVL Test Factory managers
from all over the world get together
for several meetings to share their
experiences and to define common
goals, standards, processes and key
performance indicators. In my new
function I also draw from the experience
I gained from building new
Tech Centers. Apart from that, jobs
like managing staff, operating a cutting
edge test facility and developing
it further helped me build a
vast wealth of know-how. Thanks
to our very close cooperation with
the Powertrain Engineering areas we
were able to constantly move forward
and, in doing so, devise and
standardize lots of new use cases
and development methods. During
my time at the AVL Test Factory I
managed to build a large global AVL
network, consisting of highly motivated,
intelligent and creative employees.
I was given a lot of freedom
to do my work and was able
to put my own ideas into practice.
In all those years I also learned how
to delegate and hand over responsibilities
to the employees. User and
application expertise is crucial for
the further development of testing
equipment. That’s why good networking
and cooperation with “the
internal user” – the global AVL Test
Factories – is so fundamental to our
ability to develop high-quality and
well proven systems for the market.
‹F.›: You mentioned once that most
employees really enjoy working at
AVL. What do you think is the secret?
What conditions must be established?
What does the perfect
work environment at AVL look like?
and what tasks lie ahead.