Excursion to Audi in Neckarsulm

On Tuesday, 09 June we had a very interesting excursion to Neckarsulm (60km from Heidelberg), where we visited the Audi Factory. There we had the great opportunity to inspect the entire manufacturing process of Audi cars, such as A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, Q3, Q5, Q7, TT etc. 

  

Before the start of the tour, we had some time to walk around the Audi Forum where we could see an exhibition of some new cars, but also vintage and racing cars and innovative models. Audi Forum is also a place, where customers can pick up their new cars, including a dinner and a factory tour. Therefore, Audi Forum has a restaurant and a coffee bar, where Audi staff takes care for customers and prospective customers. It was also allowed to get in some cars in order to experience how it feels to be a driver of a brand new Audi.

 

After browsing around, a tour guide explained us all important details of the manufacturing process as well as other interesting facts about the Audi Company. The massive factory side can't be explored only by foot (from north to south about 3 km, from west to east about 0.8 km), so a bus took as to different halls and departments. There, every major step was explained (more or less detailed, depending on how important the step is) and it was even possible to observe the workers doing their job on the assembly line (e.g. installing controls and instruments, steering wheels, doors, mirrors etc.). By the way, Audi doesn’t privilege men when they apply for these jobs. It is only about the applicant’s professional skills and qualification. So you can see more and more women in the factory.

 

It was pretty impressive, how precisely the workers and their machinery work and how every single step is planned in advance. It has to be highlighted that Audi does not only sell cars to Europe or North America. Especially the Asian market is getting more and more important. Therefore, different international regulations of the target market have to be considered in the manufacturing process. Furthermore we also learned how production technique has changed over the past years and decades and has made production not only faster and more effective, but also healthier for the workers. 

  

All in all it was an interesting and entertaining tour to Audi Factory and certainly there will be some more fans and customers of Audi cars in our group…The only drawback was that we were (understandably, due to company secret) not allowed to take pictures of the manufacturing process itself.