Rotterdam Day 2, May 12th

Today, we visited the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche Factories (Porsche was better). It was a great experience to see the differences in how the two factories handle their manufacturing processes. The main difference was the use of human and robot interactions. Mercedes boasted about their implementation of technology in the body technology shop, and it was upwards of 90% robots. While Porsche boasted that about 95% of its workforce is human. Another big difference is the customization with the cars, mercedes is able to use so many robots becuase there is small differences that the car has that can be done later down in the process while on the prosche line every car is completley different. Seeing all the different variations on the 911 was crazy to see and how much things can actually change with them, from the colors to the wheels/rims on the car to the front aerodynamics so and machines don’t do well with that level of variation. Loved going to both of the factories and almost shed a tear because of the beauty of all the Porsches in the museum.