- von Tyler
When arriving to Volkswagen, we took the train from Braunschweig to Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg is a smaller city but is home to Many Volkswagen Employees. There is roughly 60,000 people that work at Volkswagen so the city revolves around the company. They have a soccer club and soccer stadium right outside the factory.
They have 6.2km^2 of land with multiple factories. During World War II they used these factories to make SUV and other military vehicles. This made the factories a target during the war and you could see this today by looking at the holes in the beams supporting the roof.
With all this room we had to ride around on a car for the tour. While touring, we stayed inside a warehouse but covered a lot of ground. This shows that they have a massive production line and they had massive machines to put together the cars. They also have a factory in Mexico and in a nearby city that helps them produce cars for the world.
- von Michael
Of the major companies we have visited, I noticed they have museums which detail the company’s history and progression throughout the ages. At Volkswagen they did not have a museum detailing their progress. I noticed the employees dressed either in semi formal attire, or if they were operating the machinery they had a uniform. I suspect there is a uniform to differentiate the difference branches within the company.
I found the production lines at Volkswagen particularly interesting with the machinery acting semi-autonomously in the assembly lines. During the tour, one of the presses appeared to seize up and I noticed the workers assess the problem and attempt to fix the problem, testing the equipment several times to make sure it works properly. With this, I noticed the workers are constantly monitoring the machinery. I do not know if this practice is also employed in American facilities but I would assume that engineers being readily available is a commonplace occurrence.
During the albeit limited tour due to the company switching production over to the campus in Wolfsburg and educating the employees on the new products the company will produce, our tour guide informed us of the layout of the campus, the 6,5 km^2 area which includes the stadium, a test track (which I did not explore as I was under the impression that I needed to know how to drive a stick shift), and much much more.
What’s more is that the Wolfsburg branch of Volkswagen employs around 60.000 people. The population of Wolfsburg is around 124.000; meaning roughly 25% of the population of Wolfsburg works at Volkswagen. And according to our tour guide, traffic is a nightmare around the time when shifts change.
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