96redLT4

I guess this is a question for those who have been on the factory tour. Are the cars made in batches of different styles? Was the same guy who put together my GTS working on a Carrera 4 or a RS 10 minutes ago? With so many different variants how do they keep track? I was pleasantly surprised to find mine accurately put together per the order sheet.
Jim

Larry Cable

Jim, the short answer is 'yes' the longer answer is that there is a single production line at Zuffenhausen that makes all 911 variants (even the cup
cars, but not the full race cars) as well as the Boxster variants.

When you take the tour you notice that there is no order to the variants that
are on the line, you could have a Boxster next to an RS, followed by a Turbo,
and a cabriolet ...

Porsche adopted a Just In time manufacturing system many years ago that is
highly automated (although the line itself is entirely hand assembled with the
exception of the chassis welding and painting, windshield installation, and
tire/rim mounting).

from start to finish the production of each individual model is managed by the
JIT computer system, including supply chain for OEM parts from external
producers to the delivery of the parts to each individual assembly station.

Each car has a unique bar code attached to it (after painting) and this is
scanned by the system to schedule you can see mine here:



When the chassis leaves the paint shop it travels over the street in an
elevated tunnel, here: https://goo.gl/maps/giYvYstRbAv

That barcode is scanned and uniquely identifies the car to the JIT system,
which then schedules the delivery of *all* the components to the various
stations on the line (which is quite unique as it is on multi-levels, because
of a lack of space on the original site, so the car enters at the top of the
building and travels along, then down, until it emerges complete at the
ground level).

So for example, my car had a PTS PCM unit, which would appear in the BOM
for my car, that would be scheduled for delivery by robots from the parts
store (the original factory bldg) to the station that installs the PCM by robot
ready as my car passed that station ...

its pretty amazing to watch ...

the only batching that I am aware of that occurs is the PTS'ing of the cars,
since the paint robots only have a paint carousel of around 12 colors the
factory batches up PTS production so that they can reload the paint robots
with a palette of PTS colors then run the chassises through the paint shop
at the same time ... this is mostly to avoid costly downtime switching the
paints etc I believe...

hope that helps!

- Larry

p.s
of course model retirement and new model introduction can result in more of one variant to be built in volume on the line, but its pretty much driven
by the order book, and the supply chain of parts ... this is why we see delays
for example when Recaro cannot deliver enough LWBs for the GT3's or GT4's etc

Dewinator

The .1 base with manual transmission and PASM are made in Stuttgart, the .2 or S or PDK or traditional suspension/SPASM are made in HELL! (or vice versa depending on whatever your preferences are).

96redLT4

Very informative Larry! Thank you. I get a warm fuzzy that if I can't have a 911R at least I know the same guys, good or bad, who are building those put mine together.
J

Larry Cable

You and Me both!

917k

Yes, it's very cool. Larry, great detail. I saw the line 15 years ago; they did not have the overhead track then - looking forward to a new tour

mb1

I was fortunate enough to take the tour about 10 days ago. It's fascinating and highly surprising to see the relative randomness of the order of cars being produced. I was also luck to see probably 10-15 PTS GT3 RS's on the production line in a rainbow of colors.

Key Left

They only make the same exact car once every three months on average.

kkapoor

What struck me when taking the tour was the insane amount of profit they must be making. I'm sure they make a good profit on the base 911 Carrera but seeing the production and knowing the price variations between the 911 models it strikes you that the cost of building each different model must be very similar to the base car.

subshooter

I've watched the production at the factory also and I agree with your conclusion. Their profit margin (IMHO) is going to be even greater on the S with the 991.2. Heck, its the same engine with just more boost.....tack on 14k + wider tires, PTV and bigger front brakes..... Yeah...they are going to make a huge profit on the S.

pvr

Not sure how you got your picture Larry, as we were not allowed to take any pictures during the factory tour.

Excellent tour by the way and worth the trip (I drove there). Even the car park under the museum contains an interesting set of cars from owners.

Larry Cable

back of the car is in my garage ...the picture of the chassis bridge is from google maps (taken from the main road outside the factory)

<3mph

I vaguely recall hearing the mix of cars and engines is not entirely random. Since the average time per car is standard, they make sure to put a few easy and a few harder cars together so that the workers have enough extra time for the harder cars. So maybe a boxster is easier and frees up time for an RS which might take a few extra seconds to do that step. Anyone else able to confirm that?

mb1

I thought that I heard that the stations were all timed identically at 3 min 30 sec for each for the non-body assembly components (engine etc)

Larry Cable

correct - the line runs at a constant speed ...