Automotive production line – like Clockwork

Automated car factories are now extremely common all over the world. Instead of seeing people assemble all parts on the automobile, there are machines (robotic) which build the entire car. Anywhere from Europe to the United States, the car industry has been forever changed.

In a car factory, you would be able to see robots working alongside humans. Mainly, humans are co-workers now, aiding the robots in case of an issue. In a Volkswagen plant in Germany, there are many robotic arms which assemble different parts of the automobile. In one room, it is filled with the sound of mostly robots working autonomously to do their specific task. Then, you would see maybe one or two workers overseeing their area, not directly putting anything together or building. This shift to autonomous robotics has been drastic in the car industry. Even though there were many tasks which were assigned to automated robots, the amount has increased significantly in the past couple of years. The first robotic arm was put into the GM car factory in the 60s.

Volkswagen - Robots working alongside humans

The system also has to work alongside humans, with safety precautions taken into account. Two most important factors are being safe and reliable. Robots have previously been incapable of doing such distinct jobs in the plant; it was too dangerous to work in close proximity to humans. Now, there are as many (or even more) robots in a car factory as there are humans. The efficiency of the plant also increases when robots are put to do specific tasks repeatedly, with no mistakes. The increase of robots on the assembly line is not to replace the people, but in order to help them. There are robots that build cars, and there are people (or it may even be more robots) who build those robots. It is a basically a cycle with a beginning and an end.

Porsche - People working in factory 

Only in Porsche have I seen people working on the car parts itself in the production line. In order to build the dashboard, assembly lines of workers were putting everything together. It was, exactly like clockwork. It starts with the basic plastic mold of the Porsche 911 dashboard. An automated “trolley” which follows a yellow line along the entire factory holds the parts for that specific car being made. The first worker snaps in all of the gages, and needs to do his job in 2 minutes exactly. Then two minutes is over, and the trolley with the parts moves along with the dashboard to the next worker which puts together another part (all in two minutes), then it moved on to the next, and then the next. Every worker does their own specific job for each car model and dashboard model, without switching positions throughout the entire shift. What is most interesting is, that Porsche does not make 911 after 911. All of the models that go through the assembly line are all randomized. If a person ordered a white Carrera S, then the next order that came in was a Cayenne, the assembly will do them in order, the line doesn’t have to be the same model car all the time. The entire production line of Porsche automobiles is extremely impressive, I must say.