The group had the great privilege of touring the Mercedes Benz production facility here in Bremmen. It was a really cool experience for the engineering students to see the 95% automated line producing many different models and colors of luxury vehicles. We started the tour with a brief presentation informing us that this plant produced just under 2000 cars a day for over 20 different countries. We then made our way to the line and saw the body of the car being assembled with mostly robotic welding arms, but also industrial glue and rivets made by similar robotic arm. The cycle time was just over a minute and we could see several models of cars come together in just a matter of minutes. After the body is formed, assembled, and painted, all completely automated with no human interference, all of the car components were inserted robotically and the chasse was monted by hand with the help of a hand-held power drill. From the limited glance we received it seemed as though the whole chasse was monted by hand with just two bolts in each of the driver and passenger sides. The rest of the assembly we saw was all done by machine assisted manual labor where each and every car was a different model and color and the workers assembled the rest of the unique pieces to that car by hand. It was a great experience for mechanical engineers looking to get a taste of process control engineering like myself. As we were leaving we got to see the test track in use for one of the new cars as well as a concept car in the main lobby. Overall it was an incredible experience and many members of the group and I were gitty with excitement and infused with renewed commitment for learning to someday be able to so something like this with our degree.
