Our day started early around 6:30 AM and we headed to the MAN Truck and Bus Company campus. We had a long bus ride this morning, over two hours, so most of us got to continue our slumber on the way there. When we arrived, we were given neon construction-looking vests showing we were visitors. This made the tour feel very official and exciting.
I knew nothing about the company going into this site visit, so I wasn’t sure what to expect and I was envisioning the production of the trucks themselves. When we walked along the production line and saw the engines being made, I was amazed by their humungous size and I immediately noticed the mass amounts of parts being strategically placed into these engines. Comparing this site visit to our visits with BMW and KUKA, there was definitely a higher presence of humans working hands on compared to robots. I found it very interesting to hear about some of the truck industry’s plans for automation in these massive vehicles. They are several years behind the car industry, but still implementing certain autonomous features which is intriguing and I am definitely going to pay attention to how this continues to develop at MAN.
We then headed to Nuremberg and got the chance to tour Kunstbunker, which served as a climate controlled vault to store artwork during the WWII air raids. Although the original artwork was obviously not present, it was cool to see the original walls and flooring. It was also much bigger than I imagined when first walking in; there were lots of different rooms and tunnels that all were interconnected. Nuremberg is such a quaint city with beautiful architecture, it is crazy to think that not so long ago this city was bombed and put to ruins. When we were touring the bunker, our tour guide informed us that prior to the rebuild, the city voted on rebuilding it to its original architecture style or a more modern city with skyscrapers. There was a drawn up vision for the modern city and I can not picture Nuremberg looking anything like it.
After getting a chance to walk around the city and see what it has to offer, I kept forgetting that the entire city was rebuilt, it has a very historic and preserved feel to it. Today reminded me that the automotive industry is much more vast than we may think and also gave me the opportunity to learn more about such a significant event in WWII history.
