Today we embarked on not one, but two company visits. Webasto and BMW. We started the day at Webasto being greeted with light refreshments and a brief introduction to the company’s products. The first half of our visit focused on their electric vehicle chargers and the second focused on their car roofs. When being introduced to their car chargers, we were given a lot of background information into their position in the market, their strategy for the product, and the problems they face producing the product. They focused more on the business aspects for the car chargers, and more of the engineering aspects for the car roofs, and this time around the engineering part of the visit interested me more. We were taken through each step of the process a roof goes through being tested in the facility. Heating tests, cooling tests, vibration tests, sound tests, and many combinations of those. There was a great amount of time, effort, and money spent in order to make sure that a roof would be ready to be put on a car.

After visiting Webasto, we would be taken to BMW. BMW was the company that I would be researching for my group project, and this was the best company tour we did by far. We started with a tour of their plant, and we were able to see every step of the process of making a BMW from start to finish. Most of the process is now automated, which is a lot more safe and efficient. The tour guide was very knowledgeable, and was able to give my teammates and a I lot of great information about the company for our presentation. We then took a tour through the BMW museum that was right next to their production plant. There we got to learn a lot more about the history of the company and its progression over the years. We lastly were able to talk to a representative of the company about BMW’s efforts when it comes to sustainability and longevity. Everyone that we met on our visit to BMW was so passionate about the company, and this was a huge advantage for my group.