Today left me speechless. For our last company visit we went to Audi, and their facility was breathtaking. I can only explain so much, so if you ever have the opportunity to do so, take a factory tour of Audi.
Before heading to Audi, though, I tried German yogurt (strawberry flavored) for the first time during breakfast. It was nothing special and tasted very similar to American yogurt, but it was still good and something I wanted to note. After breakfast, we took the bus to the village of Ingolstadt, which is where the Audi facility is located. I took a nap the whole bus ride there, so I can’t really tell you anything about the village. My goal was to be fully energized for the tour because I was super excited.
To no surprise, the tour did not let me down. Even though I’m not that big of a car guy, I was blown away the whole time. In case you don’t know, Audi is one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world. They build the shells of their cars through an assembly line and also build their own engines. All the other car parts are bought from suppliers, which are companies like Grob, Faurecia, and Hoerbiger. So, the whole week we visited car part suppliers and today we visited an actual manufacturer, getting further down the supply chain each day.
At Audi, my group was first given the factory tour. They were so strict that they made us lock our mobile devices in lockers first, which is understandable. We were also given an electronic tour guide and an ear piece, as we watched and listened to videos throughout the tour. Our tour began at the press shop, where giant robot arms placed sheets of metal into machines to be pressed into hoods for the cars. It was amazing, and also pretty terrifying, to see all the robots working together and knowing exactly when to put it into the machine or to wait. They are all so quick, too. We then headed over to all the assembly lines and on the way, I realized how neat and organized the factory was compared to all the other companies we visited this week. The factory was also very modern and beautiful.
On the way to the assembly lines, we saw that Audi has a literal road in the middle of the factory, which was really cool. They have to transport so many big parts that they just decided to build a road. Then all of a sudden, while we were looking at the road, these robot cars carrying parts came out of nowhere, and we had to get out of the way. It amazes me that the robots just know exactly where to go and if there are people in the way.
When we finally got to the assembly, we saw all these cars hanging from cranes and a ton of workers working from underneath the cars. It was so awesome seeing the robots and workers work together and seeing how fast the assembly line was going. We walked through all the assembly lines so we got to see the beginning of the process all the way to the finished cars being driven.
After the amazing factory tour, it was our group’s turn to head to the museum. Before heading into the museum, though, we were in the showroom for a bit looking at all their new car models. We got to sit inside them and after sitting in an Audi and feeling the leather, I’m now considering buying one in the future. At the showroom, we also saw customers driving their brand new car out of the showroom, right after they bought them.
The museum was really cool, as we got to see all the models Audi ever manufactured. You started at the top of the museum and worked your way down until you eventually got to their prototypes for future electric and autonomous (self-driving) cars. It amazes me how far we have come with technology through the years.
We then had a presentation of the overview of the company, which was presented by one of the product planning managers. The presentation was awesome and it was cool to hear that by 2030, the German car market plans to be all electric. After the presentation, we ate at the restaurant on Audi’s facility. I had schnitzel, again, with potato salad and this fizzy raspberry drink which was pretty good.
Once our time at Audi was over, we headed to the University of Augsburg to hear a presentation from a Bloomberg news writer, whose focus is on the German car market. We stopped at a bakery before the presentation and I got a square pastry that was covered in chocolate, and it was really good. I couldn’t tell you what was in it, though. After the bakery, it was really cool hearing from a Bloomberg employee and being able to ask him all these questions about the car market. He was very smart and was able to answer all our questions.
When the presentation was over, our long day came to the end and we headed back to the hotel. We had the evening to ourselves so us guys got dinner at this Vietnamese restaurant that was recommended to us by the girls.
We all ordered a chicken noodle bowl with salad and some dumplings. The dumplings were really good and so was the bowl, but the bowl was really big and I couldn’t finish it. The sauce that you pour on the noddles was also really good. To end our evening, we got ice cream at Tutti Frutti, again.
As a celebration for finishing our company visits, Professor Feick is letting us sleep in a little tomorrow until we head off to Munich! Tonight, we are exploring the city of Augsburg!
Nicholas Monetti