After having been to so many site visits and factory tours of companies that other groups were assigned to, I almost forgot there would be a day that we would we would visit my groups company!
Meeting in the lobby in the five o’clock hour felt like a fever dream. I prepared questions the night before focused on my area of the presentation, but for some reason I felt nervous driving to Aumovio. With our presentations coming up so quickly, I felt like I still had so much to learn about the company and their current position in the automotive market, so I knew I had to be as focused an attentive as possible today.
When we arrived, we first got our badges before making our way over to the meeting room where we started with a talk about the importance of efficiency on the factory floor at Aumovio. Being marketed as a new high-tech company out of the more well-known brand of Continental, I found it surprising that physical operations in the factory were a main priority. After learning more about the volume of shipments coming in and out every day, this began to make more sense and gave me a better idea of what the company does.
The factory tour felt completely different than any of the others we had been on. We first had to wear protective gear because of the electrostatic energy in the factory. There were tight walkways for us to stay within, and surrounding us were lots of machines and robots being monitored and managed by humans. It was very cool to see their hardware being produced and better understand how different car manufacturer’s desired software is implemented.
After our time at Aumovio, we took the bus to Regensberg which I honestly forgot we were even going to! I knew we had a tour here, but having zero expectations of the city itself I was so pleasantly surprised! With the bridges and the rivers, this German town felt very different compared to the others we had seen. Maybe it was also because the sun came out and it was a beautiful day, but it felt more coastal and similar to towns I’ve been to in Italy. Before our tour, we got lunch at the same place we ate in Munich which we realized was a German chain, did some shopping around, and finished with gelato!
The most memorable part of the tour here for me was the enthusiasm and kindness shown by our tour guide. All of our guides have been incredible, but this man found a way to make talking about a torture chamber endearing. We got back pretty late, but I tried my best to transfer what I learned from my site visit today to my presentation because without realizing it was already less than two days until presentation day!
