Trip to Evobus

Last Friday AIESEC Mannheim organized a visit to EvoBus factory in the outskirts of Mannheim. In case you don't know, EvoBus is the bus making division of Daimler-Chrysler And since Daimler has already sold Chrysler, its now known as Daimler.
We arrived there at around 9am and was given a short slide show of the history of EvoBus and Daimler-Benz. Did u know Karl Benz (the inventor of the automobile) drove his car for the first time from Mannheim to Stuttgart? I was first amazed at the factory that makes almost everything in house!! even to the small screws and metal parts. only stuff like seats and electronic and electric devices are made by other companies. in the slide show we were shown the map of the factory and different parts of the factory that made different parts of the bus. there is even a build in train station to transport the parts, such as engines to other factories, such as the truck factory in Ulm (which happens to be the place Mustafa is studying at).

As a note, all of the presentations and tour was in German. So i had my friend Jean translate as much as he can from what was been said by the guide. Pictures were not allowed to be taken within the compound of the factory.

After the slide show we were started the tour around the factory. The first area we were brought to was the training facility. here, the new apprentices were trained to use the equipment, troubleshoot problem, fix, and also do some engineering projects using the equipment available in the facility. The bus parts produced in the training will be also used in the real production of the buses and don't think the workers are trained like technicians. they are trained like engineers where they will have projects like creating an engine that is powered by compressed air. they are also been given the opportunity to fix the Mercedes of some clients as part of their training. they will spend a few years in the facility just for training, so i guess the graduates are really highly skilled.

Next, the engine factory, where we were shown the production of the 6 cylinder diesel engine used for the bus. If im not mistaken, the factory makes thousands of these engines a month for the buses they make and also the truck factory in Ulm. Its kind of cool watching the production line where there are a number of station, each assembling different parts of the engine. And if there is a custom component that has to be added to the engine, such as a turbocharger or fuel injection, the engine is taken out of the production line and later put back in after making the necessary modification. Usually clients will request some modifications to the engines according to their needs. Quality control it a top priority in the factory. The engines are tested before they are shipped out and once in a while an engine will be randomly picked and an intense test will be done on it to see if there are flaws in the way the engine is made and if there are problems, the engineers will discuss and see what they can do to improve the quality of the engines.

Next is the chassis and frame. The bus chassis and frames built in this factory are nothing but standard. Each and every bus is custom made to suit the clients needs. The chassis are built from a number of parts called elements. elements are kind of like skeletons that are welded together to form a bus chassis and frame. The number of elements differ according to the bus design, one story, 2 stories, city bus or travel bus. and as usual, after each production line there is a quality control. All the measurements and weldings are checked and ensured that there are no problems on them.

after the frames are done, it is transported by lorry, to the part of the factory where the frame submerged into an anti-rust solution (as the name would suggest) to protect the frame rust. After going through this process, the frame will weigh about 20 kg more than it was before.

Having taken care of the rust problems, the frame will be moved on to the factory that does all the body work, electrics and electronics, interior and engine installation. its really astonishing to see so many unfinished buses in one place. there are about 5-6 production lines with about 8 buses in each line. its kind of like an evolution where u can see an unfinished bus evolve into a ready product.. and all of this are done by hand!! no robots whatsoever.

After the buses are ready, they don't straight away deliver it to the customer, the do a road test. At first they will make a round in the EvoBus test track that is about 2KM (i think) and if nothing falls off, they will do on-the-road testing as far as 100KM, and if the wheels of bumpers don't fall off by, then it has passed the quality control thus it will be delivered to the customer.

I think the few things that impressed me the most about the working environment here are :

1. Each personal has the responsibility of reporting any problems or giving suggestions to improve the work protocol if they spot any weakness in it.

2. There is a performance chart for everyone that is made public to show the increase or decrease in work performance of the personnel.

3. Quality control. after each step there is a quality control instead of after the product is finished.

4. The large amount of effort put into training (technical as well as safety).

The trip to EvoBus was really a mind opening experience. Although the technology used in the factory could not compare to the facilities in Protons plant in Tanjung Malim, but the result of the emphasis on work discipline and protocols can be seen in the end product, u can see a lot of difference. Not to say Proton's quality is very bad, but .... you know.... :-) I have ridden on the buses, both in Turkey and in Germany, so i know :-)

So the tour ended just in time for lunch. Because the guide made us wait in the beginning of the tour, we got free lunch. And it was my lucky day because they had fish. I guess Friday is fish day!! But after the trip, i guess, it was back to work (i got a half day off for this trip)...

Tchuss