It was a fun city, but it was time to say goodbye to Stuttgart today. We visited the Porsche factory this morning, there was a lot that was impressive about the plant right off the bat. First was the large sculpture “Inspiration 911” at the center of the area, with 3 different generations of Porsche 911s facing in different directions, towards places that are significant in Porsche’s history, although I forget what exactly each one is facing. We toured through their Taycan manufacturing facility, which is their EV offering, and this was my most favorite part of the tour. Seeing the construction of the body and frame in real time was a real treat, and it was cool to see some of the similarities they shared machine-wise with Mercedes-Benz. But, the best part was definitely watching the machines “marry” a body to a chassis. According to our tour guide, it takes only 50 screws to secure the body of a Taycan to it’s chassis, and it’s a similar number for their 911. We also surveyed a 911 line for a brief time, and it was very cool to see those move down the line in nearly-complete form. Porsche was inherently more inefficient than Mercedes. So far as I could tell, they store parts, unlike Mercedes, but they do make everything to order, which means there is no car on that line that does not already have a buyer for it, and they have some machines to do the heavy lifting for the people. Like I mentioned in our early modules, they find ways to integrate technology into their work. Given the high amount of customization that makes human hands a requirement, they’re not as technologically advanced in their production as Mercedes, nor should they really be. According to the tour guide, the 911 has over a million possible combinations, which very well could mean that each Porsche owner does truly own a 1/1. Additionally, their museum was very exciting to walk through, each and every car there would make me drool if I saw it in someone’s garage back in the states, from old racing cars to flim favorites.
What I didn’ t expect from today was the fact that starting in Munich would outshine the Porsche factory so brightly. Our tour guide going through showed us the Munich marketplace, Munich’s beer gardens, it’s numerous churches, some of it’s palace, some of it’s triumphal alleys, constructed by the kings of Munich in their time, and city hall. There was a pretty heavy emphasis on the history of all these things. Munich is the 3rd largest city in Germany, with a population of 1.6 million and a founding date of 1158, so needless to say, there was a lot of history to explore, with many medieval period constructions. We stopped and had dinner, and afterward I just got out and walked around to look at all of these places, and I even got to watch the clock tower in city hall tell part of it’s story that happens at the turn of every hour, so far as I can tell. With a city as large as this, there should be even more to see and learn about than before.
