Captain’s Log: Day 4
Guten Morgen!
(Honestly, my sleep schedule has been out of wack, I’m going to make it my goal to fix it tonight, one way or another)
Today, began like no other, I slept in slightly 😭
I wanted to grab breakfast, but showering, getting dressed, and grabbing my things slowed me down, so I had to skip breakfast.
I was late to get on the bus thinking it would leave at 7:10, but it actually left at 7:00, so that was dandy.
Anyways! Enough negativity! Today we began by heading out to Webasto, a company that specializes in the roofs of cars (80% of sales) and batteries (Definitely less than 20%). The initial presentation was slightly interesting, in fact the most interesting thing was probably that it was held in an indoor tennis court. The presentation mainly consisted of a lot of facts, but then we got into Webasto labs.
Webasto manufactures roofs for cars globally, but today we got to witness the testing facilities used to full-proof their roofs.
After observing every single test shown to us today, I have to say, Webasto takes testing extremely seriously! There were tests for temperatures, tests for vibrations, and many more, but I’ll share my two favorite with you!
There was a very neat water testing facility, that basically tested how resistant the roofs were to corrosion, and whether or not water would leak through the roof. Basically putting the car through a series of tests in the absolute worst case scenarios. The hoses attached to the top spray water at really high pressures.
The second one was the acoustic testing room, which basically had some really high tech cameras that pinpoint a location where noise can be heard. The idea of this is to test where the roof may be squeaky, so Webasto can guarantee that the roof is full fastened and in tip top shape. All for safe and satisfaction of business companies, and the customers who later drive the vehicles. Really expensive! Yet really awesome technology!
After leaving Webasto, we were finally heading to the grandest company on this trip. BMW.
(Dun dun duuuuuuuuun)
(Personal band at it again with the drama)
Honestly, even though we weren’t visiting it, it was still quite the fascinating sight!
After arriving at BMW, I was extremely impressed by the architecture of their headquarters! This office building may have been one of the coolest I’ve ever seen.
HQ also referred to as the BMW Four-Cylinder!
Alongside that, the actual office was surrounded by the BMW museum, and BMW World (not an amusement park unfortunately, but rather a place for people to rent and test-drive cars!)
We didn’t actually go inside this building
but the architecture was just fantastic!
Shortly after entering, we began a plant tour of BMW’s manufacturing line, and when I tell you that my mind was in complete awe, I’m not lying. It absolutely was! Robots! Machines! Conveyor Belts! Mass Production! It was absolutely incredible! The processes were in their words, about 90% completely automated! I wasn’t allowed to take any photos, but here’s a stock image to kind of show what the process looked like.
After touring the plant, we took the BMW museum tour and saw some really neat stuff with older BMW models. These were some of my favorite ones by far:
4.5 Million Dollar Car! Only 250 in the world!
Today we got back to the hotel pretty early, and we were given the chance to go grab an individual dinner. So Zach, Peter, Liam, Ben, Vipin, Jerry, Jason, and I all returned to Ali Baba’s Kebap House, and this time I got the falafel wrap this time, and it was a great way to end the day!
Well tomorrow is Faurecia Day, aka my company day so I should probably get going to bed now.
Guten Nacht!