Going into our visit with AUDI I was ready to compare this headquarters to BMW’s. BMW and Audi are fierce competitors and often face similar pressures in the industry. We heard what BMW had to say, and I was interested to see if there were differences at Audi.
One of the main factors I noticed was that Audi felt more structured to me. As we were on our tour, we were able to go on the floor and see up close the way that Audi assembles their cars. I big difference I saw was that Aud had a collaboration of robots and humans working on the floor where BMW was operated heavily by machines assembling the vehicle parts. I found it interesting how Audi had the cars moving down the assembly line while the machinists assembled the cars. We also got to see KUKA machines assist the Audi employees with tasks like putting in the driver’s seat. One of the KUKA machines acted as a third arm as the human could move the KUKA arm manually to assemble the vehicle. It was a really cool experience!
In terms of competitive advantage I think Audi and BMW are very similar. On both tours there were a variety of similarities except for the fact that BMW didn’t have many human workers on the floor. Based on my personal thoughts, Audi seemed more focused on sleek technology and modern manufacturing where BMW appealed to maintaining brand identity!
As someone who will be entering the job market soon, I believe I would be more drawn to a career with Audi over a career with BMW. I admired Audi’s drive for innovation! Obviously a career with either of these brands would be a dream! Overall, seeing the production of such widely known brands was something I will never forget!
