Apr 9, 2006 6:10:36 PM
- Porsche-Jeck
- Rennteam Master
-
- Loc: Rheinland , Germany
- Posts: 4311, Gallery
- Registered on: Jun 27, 2005
Factory pick up experience
Executive summary for those not liking to read my lenghty text: Highly recommendable 
Spring time (or the wheather that German people have to accept as so called Spring) is high season for the factory pick up option - so they had 18 spanking new beauties sitting in the presentation hall on March 30th.
As my wife and I arrived ahead of schedule at the pick up center
the Porsche people have been so nice to change the order of events for us to keep us out of the "high traffic": first the visit of the Porsche museum (great cars to look at for the enthusiast, but for a really nice presentation you have to wait until Spring next year, when the new museum building will be ready), second first meeting with our Baby 
, third factory tour and fourth lunch.
The lady at the reception desk was astonsihed about all the luggage we had with us for our 9 days P-car holiday, but the instructor who took 1.5 hrs to explain all the car's features to us (redundant for any Rennteamer, but nice though) just laughed and said: no problem - they are getting our "Room-Wonder", the Boxster
We had the privilege to be on our own with the guide during our factory tour - so he took all the time to answer our questions and to explain everything in detail (sorry, no pics allowed inside the factory
).
I'm not a production guy but I've seen some 100 factories during my professional career and all I can say is that I'm very impressed with what I've seen
Although the site in Zuffenhausen is not perfect anymore in terms of workflow efficiency (multi floor production) everything is extremely well organised. Every 5 minutes a completed 997 is leaving the production belt (just as a point of reference: Ford Focus production in Cologne: every 45 seconds). If one considers that all the 997 variants (we saw them all incl. the TT) are coming off the same production line, one has to admit that the JIT-logistics is close to perfection.
One funny side remark: when I saw a basalt black cab with terracotta interior and cocoa top on the belt I couldn't resist to guess about it's final designation....hmmm, must be Fla or Ca (no offence to my US-friends
). The guide went to the back of the car, checking the rear bumper and smiled: Bingo
Highlight of the tour is the "marriage station" of course (fitting the engine into the chassis) - basically the job is done by 40 joints/screws and each of them gets it's own documentation (the guide made some remarks about the US legal system...). Also very impressive is the fully automated window fitting station - looks like a robot-ballet.
It's good to see that it still needs a lot of craftmanship to build these dreamcars: from the engine production (following the one man - sometimes two - one engine rule) to the fitting of the doors (done by a guy who almost in trance applies a little slap here and some push there to the door) you see a lot of workers doing it the "Swabian Way": no hectic, no shouting at each other, just a continous flow of solid work (a comparison with F's Maranello factory would be interesting
). During our P-car holiday we visited a friend who works as a production engineer at Mercedes Benz and he frankly admitted, that in terms of production efficiency and product quality Porsche is the benchmark for all other German carmakers without a doubt.
After an excellent 4 course lunch (quality of the cuisine is also at P-level) I detected a solid black 997 TT parket at the factory yard (BTW looked great in the flesh ) and took some pics - it took only one minute and I have been almost arrested by a "Werksschutz" guy who forced me to delete the pics from my digicam . When he flipped through the series of pics he first wanted to delete the pics I took from my new ride in the presentation hall also 
- I just laughed and convinced him that Porsche does not yet charge customers for taking pics of their own cars 
(maybe another idea for the marketing department 
).
Other observations: Of course Zuffenhausen is the world's capital in terms of P-car density, but even knowing this it's impressive to see all the P-cars (mostly employee's cars) circulating around the factory like bees around a honeypot (most of them quite dirty - o.k. must have been the bad wheather..).
Lot of 997 TT's driving around the factory - Having read all the posts on the TT-board about the sub-par looks of the car (most judgement based on pics of course) I must say, the car looks really nice in the flesh (just my opinion), but they have to do something with the sound IMO 
Also saw a Boxster in a very unique blue colour (IMO it's the Azurro California - the special paint for the PCNA club coupé) - I managed to take some pics of it (not caught by the Werksschutz this time) and will post them later.
Bottom line: if you ever have the chance to pick up your new Porsche in Zuffenhausen or just to attend the factory tour - go for it, you never regret it
Spring time (or the wheather that German people have to accept as so called Spring) is high season for the factory pick up option - so they had 18 spanking new beauties sitting in the presentation hall on March 30th.
As my wife and I arrived ahead of schedule at the pick up center
the Porsche people have been so nice to change the order of events for us to keep us out of the "high traffic": first the visit of the Porsche museum (great cars to look at for the enthusiast, but for a really nice presentation you have to wait until Spring next year, when the new museum building will be ready), second first meeting with our Baby , third factory tour and fourth lunch.The lady at the reception desk was astonsihed about all the luggage we had with us for our 9 days P-car holiday, but the instructor who took 1.5 hrs to explain all the car's features to us (redundant for any Rennteamer, but nice though) just laughed and said: no problem - they are getting our "Room-Wonder", the Boxster
We had the privilege to be on our own with the guide during our factory tour - so he took all the time to answer our questions and to explain everything in detail (sorry, no pics allowed inside the factory
).I'm not a production guy but I've seen some 100 factories during my professional career and all I can say is that I'm very impressed with what I've seen
Although the site in Zuffenhausen is not perfect anymore in terms of workflow efficiency (multi floor production) everything is extremely well organised. Every 5 minutes a completed 997 is leaving the production belt (just as a point of reference: Ford Focus production in Cologne: every 45 seconds). If one considers that all the 997 variants (we saw them all incl. the TT) are coming off the same production line, one has to admit that the JIT-logistics is close to perfection.
One funny side remark: when I saw a basalt black cab with terracotta interior and cocoa top on the belt I couldn't resist to guess about it's final designation....hmmm, must be Fla or Ca (no offence to my US-friends
). The guide went to the back of the car, checking the rear bumper and smiled: Bingo Highlight of the tour is the "marriage station" of course (fitting the engine into the chassis) - basically the job is done by 40 joints/screws and each of them gets it's own documentation (the guide made some remarks about the US legal system...). Also very impressive is the fully automated window fitting station - looks like a robot-ballet.
It's good to see that it still needs a lot of craftmanship to build these dreamcars: from the engine production (following the one man - sometimes two - one engine rule) to the fitting of the doors (done by a guy who almost in trance applies a little slap here and some push there to the door) you see a lot of workers doing it the "Swabian Way": no hectic, no shouting at each other, just a continous flow of solid work (a comparison with F's Maranello factory would be interesting
). During our P-car holiday we visited a friend who works as a production engineer at Mercedes Benz and he frankly admitted, that in terms of production efficiency and product quality Porsche is the benchmark for all other German carmakers without a doubt.After an excellent 4 course lunch (quality of the cuisine is also at P-level
) I detected a solid black 997 TT parket at the factory yard (BTW looked great in the flesh ) and took some pics - it took only one minute and I have been almost arrested by a "Werksschutz" guy who forced me to delete the pics from my digicam . When he flipped through the series of pics he first wanted to delete the pics I took from my new ride in the presentation hall also - I just laughed and convinced him that Porsche does not yet charge customers for taking pics of their own cars (maybe another idea for the marketing department ).Other observations: Of course Zuffenhausen is the world's capital in terms of P-car density, but even knowing this it's impressive to see all the P-cars (mostly employee's cars) circulating around the factory like bees around a honeypot (most of them quite dirty - o.k. must have been the bad wheather..).
Lot of 997 TT's driving around the factory - Having read all the posts on the TT-board about the sub-par looks of the car (most judgement based on pics of course) I must say, the car looks really nice in the flesh
(just my opinion), but they have to do something with the sound IMO Also saw a Boxster in a very unique blue colour (IMO it's the Azurro California - the special paint for the PCNA club coupé) - I managed to take some pics of it (not caught by the Werksschutz this time
) and will post them later. Bottom line: if you ever have the chance to pick up your new Porsche in Zuffenhausen or just to attend the factory tour - go for it, you never regret it
