As per usual we started the day by eating some amazing breakfast at the hotel before heading to our company visit. Instead of visiting Hoerbiger, today we visited Grob. We were lead to their presentation room and given a rundown of the company. We learned that they primarily made robots that manufactured different items depending on the customer. They serviced big name companies like Tesla and Porsche, which used Grob’s products to create components for their electric vehicles. We then started our tour of the company. The first room they showed us was filled with these machines and many different items that they had produced. With only a solid aluminum block, these machines were able to create extremely detailed things like a basketball net, a panther, and even a church!
As we continued the tour we learned more and more about the company and their machines. What I thought was incredibly unique is how, instead of relying on suppliers to give them components or their machines, the just created entirely new machines to manufacture these components for them! This effectively cuts out the “middleman” for their machine parts and lets them be very self-sufficient since they can have have everything they need in house. This strategy allowed them to be extremely efficient with their time and resources while simultaneously minimizing the amount of outsourcing they would have to do. This brilliant business strategy is how Grob has continued to grow and will continue to grow, unlike Hoerbiger, which is facing a potential crisis since they can not be as self-sufficient and can only do what they can with what they have.
Hoerbiger also falls short when compared to Grob in the sense that Grob has a much broader potential for what their product can do. Unlike Hoerbiger, which sells set components, Grob’s component-making machine can be used in many more ways. Additionally, changing configurations in Grob’s products is much easier than in Hoerbiger’s since only a small tweak on the machines will allow for the machines to produce a varying array of different things. On the other hand, Hoerbiger would have to go through an entire system change to customize their products.
I ended the night by shopping and eating back at Augsburg. A few friends and I tried a Burger King joint there, which ended up being more expensive than the American counterpart. The food was about the same quality as well. Afterwards we found an incredibly good ice cream shop. I got one scoop of chocolate (or Schokolade) ice cream on a cone and devoured it. Tomorrow we start the day bright and early for another company visit and I will see you then!
