Everyone was very excited to visit the Audi factory, because to this point we had only seen factories manufacturing parts of cars, not the finished product. This factory was the cleanest and most technologically-advanced-looking that we had seen so far. The factory, as it was explained to us, was laid out in a way that optimized the process of creating, combining, and finishing the parts to create a complete vehicle. Something that our tour guide mentioned that reminded me of some things others had said at other plants was that the machines were designed in a way to reduce the strain to the human body in their operation. The machines did not require anyone to lift or maneuver in a way that would hurt themselves. The factory was also designed to heavily emphasize the robots and machinery, because they are cheaper in the long haul than human labor.

The museum and the gift shops were a hit with everyone, and my favorite part was seeing all the older cars from the 30s and 40s. My favorite cars are from this era, but it is also interesting to consider who would have driven cars such as these at the time.

Our guest lecturer was only 35 years old, yet he was in a very well-respected position and had a great deal of success in his career. It was inspiring to hear from him regarding his experience in planning the future of the company, as well as interesting to imagine that he would have a say in much of the company’s steps moving forward. The most interesting part, in my opinion, was how he mentioned that the company operating as part of the Volkswagen group was somewhat of a hinderance to the company’s ability to push decisions through management quickly.