I picked up my USA spec C350 this on Sept. 8 and thoroughly enjoyed the factory tour of chassis fabrication and assembly sections of the MB plant in Sindelfingen (10 miles SW of Stuttgart). Following are some observations and facts given by the tour guide.
1. Delivery center is stunning. Modern, stylish, spotless, with auditorium, restaurant, mini-museum, accessory and gift shop, a waiting lounge with continuous free snacks and drinks, observation deck of delivery hall, and the delivery hall where you are introduced to your car.
2. The earliest departing english speaking tour is now 11:20 AM, not 9:45 AM as noted on the MB factory tour website. The regular tours are conducted in German. We opted for a German tour and it worked out OK as the intro movie uses translating audio headsets and our guide spoke also spoke english and would provide a separate "side-session" to answer our questions. I am also very familiar with auto factory assembly processes. The tour takes exactly two hours (they bus you around for two stops).
3. The Sindelfingen plant was proudly displaying large banners draped on the buildings noting their "1st in World" status awarded by the J.D. Powers folks for factory build quality. C, E, and S Class built in plant, but the C Class is the only line equipped with the all robotic sub-assembly; these yield the highest precision and speed of assembly. The new E Class will soon switchover to the new process, followed by the next S Class. The cars must be engineered from the onset to make best advantage of the robots, the current E and S pre-dated this epoch.
4. Tour does not cover engines, transmissions or major sub-assemblies like the dashboard. These just appeared just-in-time as needed in the assembly area.
5. Tour is of C Class chassis fabrication (hundreds of steel stampings placed into the robots' loading trays' by fork/skip-loader drivers. Robots weld stampings into three chassis units (forward, center, rear); several hundred pounds apiece, but robots can whip these around like they were paper. Robots use synthetic vision, laser measuring, and tactile sensors to maintain perfect fit/placement that automatically adjust for robotic tool wear and joint positioning error between calibration cycles. No people allowed around robots as they move too fast; sensors used to detect human incursion and stop robots for safety.
6. Leather upholstery and all steering wheels leather wraps are hand fitted and stitched. Very skilled job. Ditto the final shaping/sanding, staining, and sealing/polishing of wood trim pieces. Guide says this cannot be done by robots to MB quality standards; still need the human touch.
7. More robots weld 3 chassis pieces into one...getting tired of robots.
8. Side walls, roof, and aluminum/plastic front fender welded and bolted. Then off to robotic paint booth. Chassis done, sans doors, then robot installs entire finished dashboard assembly as a unit; functional checks come later.
9. Human assembly workers begin installing interior in painted unibody. Side airbags, console, steering wheel, etc. Assembly work reserved for senior, fully apprenticed workers; 90% German, the rest appear to be Turks who have worked their way up to the top skilled assembly jobs. They look very focused/careful and use portable combo barcode reader, tester, and laser probe to verify assembly tolerances.
10. Tour jumbs to body to engine/tranny, suspension merger with bodies. Brake rotors appear to be coated with some sort of grey powder coated protectorant/break-in layer. Vayring springs and shocks placed by workers as body and suspension are compressed together under load.
11. Tour jumps to glass enclosed area where C350 Avantgarde has cutaways allowing inspection of all component placements. Film and demo of seat technology and fabrication. Final questions then back on bus, finished.
12. Noticed some blue coverall clad workers and asked about them. They are interns who attend the onsite MB Institute. Very desirable job for high school grads who apply, take examinations, and are then interviewed. The attend classes and then spend part of each day being mentored by a journeyman or master level worker. It takes 1-2 years before they are fully trained and "on there own" in skilled positions. The are among the top blue collar in Germany (good pay and benefits for life).
13. Sindelfingen plant has 7,000 engineers and technicians who design, program, and maintain the plant and assembly systems. The maintenance of the robots requires lots of information technology types, networked communications, and cybernetic systems engineers; highly trained and skilled... big bucks too.
14. Sindelfingen plant has 8,000 fabrication and assembly workers to produce about 2,000 cars per day.
15. European Delivery destined vehicles are track tested to shake-out any problems before the customer's the post-dellivery trip begins. Normally, this is left to the delivery dealerships to find and fix any flaws. My car was delivered in perfect condition and, as far as I can tell, everything functioned perfectly for the 575 miles I drove.
1. Delivery center is stunning. Modern, stylish, spotless, with auditorium, restaurant, mini-museum, accessory and gift shop, a waiting lounge with continuous free snacks and drinks, observation deck of delivery hall, and the delivery hall where you are introduced to your car.
2. The earliest departing english speaking tour is now 11:20 AM, not 9:45 AM as noted on the MB factory tour website. The regular tours are conducted in German. We opted for a German tour and it worked out OK as the intro movie uses translating audio headsets and our guide spoke also spoke english and would provide a separate "side-session" to answer our questions. I am also very familiar with auto factory assembly processes. The tour takes exactly two hours (they bus you around for two stops).
3. The Sindelfingen plant was proudly displaying large banners draped on the buildings noting their "1st in World" status awarded by the J.D. Powers folks for factory build quality. C, E, and S Class built in plant, but the C Class is the only line equipped with the all robotic sub-assembly; these yield the highest precision and speed of assembly. The new E Class will soon switchover to the new process, followed by the next S Class. The cars must be engineered from the onset to make best advantage of the robots, the current E and S pre-dated this epoch.
4. Tour does not cover engines, transmissions or major sub-assemblies like the dashboard. These just appeared just-in-time as needed in the assembly area.
5. Tour is of C Class chassis fabrication (hundreds of steel stampings placed into the robots' loading trays' by fork/skip-loader drivers. Robots weld stampings into three chassis units (forward, center, rear); several hundred pounds apiece, but robots can whip these around like they were paper. Robots use synthetic vision, laser measuring, and tactile sensors to maintain perfect fit/placement that automatically adjust for robotic tool wear and joint positioning error between calibration cycles. No people allowed around robots as they move too fast; sensors used to detect human incursion and stop robots for safety.
6. Leather upholstery and all steering wheels leather wraps are hand fitted and stitched. Very skilled job. Ditto the final shaping/sanding, staining, and sealing/polishing of wood trim pieces. Guide says this cannot be done by robots to MB quality standards; still need the human touch.
7. More robots weld 3 chassis pieces into one...getting tired of robots.
8. Side walls, roof, and aluminum/plastic front fender welded and bolted. Then off to robotic paint booth. Chassis done, sans doors, then robot installs entire finished dashboard assembly as a unit; functional checks come later.
9. Human assembly workers begin installing interior in painted unibody. Side airbags, console, steering wheel, etc. Assembly work reserved for senior, fully apprenticed workers; 90% German, the rest appear to be Turks who have worked their way up to the top skilled assembly jobs. They look very focused/careful and use portable combo barcode reader, tester, and laser probe to verify assembly tolerances.
10. Tour jumbs to body to engine/tranny, suspension merger with bodies. Brake rotors appear to be coated with some sort of grey powder coated protectorant/break-in layer. Vayring springs and shocks placed by workers as body and suspension are compressed together under load.
11. Tour jumps to glass enclosed area where C350 Avantgarde has cutaways allowing inspection of all component placements. Film and demo of seat technology and fabrication. Final questions then back on bus, finished.
12. Noticed some blue coverall clad workers and asked about them. They are interns who attend the onsite MB Institute. Very desirable job for high school grads who apply, take examinations, and are then interviewed. The attend classes and then spend part of each day being mentored by a journeyman or master level worker. It takes 1-2 years before they are fully trained and "on there own" in skilled positions. The are among the top blue collar in Germany (good pay and benefits for life).
13. Sindelfingen plant has 7,000 engineers and technicians who design, program, and maintain the plant and assembly systems. The maintenance of the robots requires lots of information technology types, networked communications, and cybernetic systems engineers; highly trained and skilled... big bucks too.
14. Sindelfingen plant has 8,000 fabrication and assembly workers to produce about 2,000 cars per day.
15. European Delivery destined vehicles are track tested to shake-out any problems before the customer's the post-dellivery trip begins. Normally, this is left to the delivery dealerships to find and fix any flaws. My car was delivered in perfect condition and, as far as I can tell, everything functioned perfectly for the 575 miles I drove.
