Company Visits

Although we saw a lot of great cultural sites and enjoyed making new German friends, this trip was, of course, part of a business class and we had a lot of interesting business visits. Our student teams had researched and presented on all of the companies we went to, so it was neat to visit them and learn more about them first-hand.

Employee at Weurth packs orders that are brought to him automatically.

Our first company, on Wednesday,  was Würth Group, which seems to be known for fasteners but actually is a manufacturer, supplier, and retail seller of range of products. We were at the headquarters of the global business, which is also the location of a major distribution center, which we toured. Obviously people work in places like this all over the world every day, but it was really fascinating for me to see. We first saw a "picking" area with closely arranged, super tall shelves. People on movable lifts which fit exactly between the shelves would receive order information audibly from a computer and then maneuver to the correct spot to pull the product needed. From there we moved on through the facility to see more automated systems including a new system which automatically delivers items to stationary employees for packing. These stations included a number of systems for ensuring there are no errors, including infrared sensors which can determine if a piece is put in the wrong box. Then we saw robots stacking boxes of various sizes on pallets for shipping, robots which wrap the pallets in plastic,  machines that automatically fold boxes, and conveyor belts that automatically sort boxes and bins based on size and where they need to go.

Back in the headquarters building, we met and had lunch with the board chairman, a Kelley alumnus. The headquarters was beautifully designed, and consistent with the company's values and philanthropic interests, was filled with beautiful artwork. Würth actually considers its art collection as an investment designed to safeguard the company against poor economic times. We saw (only too briefly, in passing) a beautiful exhibit of Namibian artwork, including sculpture, painting, and photography.

Thursday we began the day at Kärcher, which makes cleaners and cleaning products. They make steam cleaners for the home (you might have seen them in Lowe's) but may be better known for their industrial cleaning machines. They are known for innovation, and change most of their product line every five years. In all they make thousands of products.

We had a great host, Alexandra, who gave a nice presentation and Q&A before leading us on a tour of the factory floor. Kärcher makes everything themselves in order to maintain high quality standards, save time, and reduce waste (they can easily replace a faulty part rather than having to replace entire pre-made components). We saw the engine assembly line where workers assembled the engines piece by piece, and moved on to see product assembly lines, injection molding machines, and packaging lines. It was interesting to see the mix of human labor and automated processes. One reason they use more people than robots is for the ease of changing what products they are assembling. If one day they need to make a switch to make a machine for the Australian market rather than for Europe, they can simply tell the employees who know how to alter the products instead of reprogramming robots. Alexandra taught us a lot about how they use policy and workplace design to maintain high worker satisfaction. Employees can change tasks for variety, they get to interact regularly, and they take breaks at the same time, along other things like a nice team incentive program for high production. I really enjoyed the Kärcher visit.

Thursday afternoon we visited Klafs, a world leader in luxury sauna manufacturing. They make products for the home, but likely do a larger business with hotels and resorts. I noticed they built the sauna in our hotel, which seemed logical. We toured the factory, and what I remember most is a lot of automated wood curing, with high quality wood that is allegedly sustainably sourced. This is the largest wood shop I have ever been in, and it was surprising clean. They had large systems to remove dust, and they clean daily with a major cleaning once a week. We also saw an area where all of the component parts for sauna orders were pulled together ready for shipping and installation. As you can imagine, a lot of what Klafs does is very customized, and usually their own staff travel to the customer to install the product.

From the factory we went to the retail showroom and saw a variety of fantastic sauna and shower setups. There was a lot of fantasizing and envy involved, and I'm sure that if I ever build a house my standards have now been set outside of my price range. Among the unique  products were an expanding sauna which, when stored, is no larger than an armoire, and a bed which sways back and forth to help clear the mind and induce sleep.

Finally, our guide (whom I liked, but whose name I don't remember) took us upstairs, where they have a large, fully functional sauna where important clients can try different treatments before committing to a purchase. There, we marveled at the various treatment rooms: saunas, steam room, a snow room for cold treatment, a compete Turkish hammam, tubs with electrically charged water, a sleep pod/light/aromatherapy room, and more. After looking around we had a nice Q&A, where we learned that Putin is a Klafs client, the salesman uses the sauna with the clients (nude, of course), and he always makes a sale.

Following Klafs we went to Mobil Gunst, the furniture store. They also sell kitchens, since most flats and homes in Germany come without kitchens installed. Both the furniture and the kitchens were well designed, and once again I found myself dreaming about all of the cool things I could put into my house if I ever built one. Tom pointed out the back office areas of the store, and mentioned a challenge of being a small business owner - the building needs a new roof, but it will be several years before he can save enough to replace it.

Friday morning we visited Recaro, a world leader in manufacturing airline seats. The bulk of their business is probably for short-haul economy-class seating, but they do make long-haul and first-class seating as well. They sell world-wide, but in the U.S. they mentioned a contract they have with Alaska Airlines. A couple of execs gave us a very German-style presentation, which was challenging because by this point in the trip we were all pretty tired. It was interesting to learn that just a few years ago they had a huge problem with quality control and missed deadlines. They shared a number of changes and management strategies they implemented which flattened the management structure, improved efficiency, increased accountability, better identified problems and solutions, and made drastic improvements in quality and on-time delivery. I couldn't help but think this company would be a perfect case study in business management.

We concluded the Recaro visit with a factory tour, where we saw component parts being manufactured and several lines of seating being assembled. It really surprised me to see how manual this process was. While we saw some large press and stamp machines, every step of the process was done by hand by real people. Through the tour, we also saw evidence of the management and accountability systems we had discussed before the tour.

Not until Tuesday did we have our final company visit. And while it was more of a commercial tour, and not a meeting with any company employee or executive, we thoroughly enjoyed the amazing and comprehensive tour of the BMW factory in Munich. This factory was mind-boggling. Again, people build stuff like this every day around the world, but I never imagined the level of technology used and the logistical planning required.

BMW Four Cylinders headquarters building and BMW Museum. 

Due to space limitations within the city, the factory has grown up instead of out. I believe it is five levels and we started at the top where, illogically to me, they use their heaviest equipment to stamp and cut body parts out of flat sheets of steel. After that, everything we saw was a highly automated and complex system of car parts moving from room to room and floor to floor while individual pieces were moved into place and welded together by hundreds of precisely choreographed robots. In one room we saw side panels mounted onto the undercarriage before the entire frame would be lifted and disappear into the ceiling above. There was a holding room with a store of a  hundred or so frames (still being held in line order) which would keep production running for about 90 minutes in case part of the line was shut down to make a change or fix. At some point along the way we saw the engine assembly room which was reminiscent of Kärcher but on a larger scale.

One fascinating area was the paint shop, there about five layers of primer, paint, and finish are applied to the body. In the initial stages the frames are dipped - completely immersed and rolled end-to-end in the paint so every crevice is covered. In a later clean room, the cars are grounded while the paint is charged and flung in fine particles at high speed toward the exterior of the body (by robots which can also open and close the doors).

The paint is actually electronically bonded to the metal. In the next room, the interiors of the frame are painted with airbrushing robots. In both of these rooms there is a constant high speed wind coming from the ceiling, and a rushing pool of water covering and draining through the floor. Any stray paint particles are captured by the water and removed from the room.

Eventually we made it to the final assembly area, where robots assisted people installing heavy batteries and the near-complete cars moved slowly along conveyers where people install the customized interior parts and trim. These conveyers are designed for the convenience of the workers, as the cars are tilted back and forth to provide access to the top or bottom of the vehicle as needed, and the workers do not need to bend or kneel.

All of this results in a new BMW every couple of minutes. They brag that every car being built is already sold. This means, amazingly, that essentially every car coming off the line is a custom order. One car might be a black wagon, the next a red sedan, the following blue with a sunroof, etc. All of these parts come together at the right time from wherever in the factory they are produced, in order, to build the final product. I can't even imagine how the engineers designed such a process and system, with what must include a million steps and hundreds of individually programmed robots.

Traveling with students can be crazy and exhausting. I certainly don't follow the same timeline or do the same things I would do if I were traveling on my own. But traveling with business students on behalf of Kelley certainly brings unique opportunities to learn and see things few people get to see. This was quite a trip. (And now I'm a BMW fan!)

At BMV Welt - some of the many cars on display. Some of the mini cars on display?