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Awesome Eduardo. Another amazing thread, for sure and you're just getting started.
I might have missed it in the multiple other PTS threads you've contributed to but are you going to try and get color codes/names that definitively match to the PTS "wailing wall" you have shared with everyone?
Have a wonderful trip and thanks in advance for all the great information.
Factory Tour today. Abbreviated one because 1/2 of production assembly area at Werk II was off-bound due to the presence of a model in regular production they didn't want the public to see. The model turned out to be a series of 991 .2 post-faced lifted Carrera or Carrera S. But by sheer luck, as we were being shown the area in the back of the factory where they were parking just assembled cars, a .2 Carrera (perhaps an S) in 'Lava Orange' and with black 'glass roof' option appeared as it had rolled off the assembly line. The rear deck lid was air vents were gloss black and 'meshy'. The apertures for the turbos on the rear bumper were clearly visible.
So we saw only arrival of painted chassis that arrived in the conveyer from the paint shop across the road...and way in the back. This is a state of the art paint facility which can't be toured. So the assembly line we saw was for the wiring harness, dash & dash components, various trim, front windshield & rear glass (only station that used robotics ABB on regular line), etc. After the chassis was sent downstairs from that top floor, we couldn't follow it. Normally, we go to several floors for the assembly line tour. Today we only tour ONE floor. None of what we saw involved the 'marriage' of the chassis to the power plant/transmission. So on today's Porsche factory tour, we experienced a form of 'coitus interuptus'! And, as anyone that has experienced that understands fully well, we were all pretty frustrated!
Saw various RS being built, one PTS Boxster ('a type of 'Slate Grey' but we couldn't find out which exact paint color because we didn't want to disturb the workers). Only viewed one '981 Spyder' and that was finished & waiting for shipment outside the assembly area.
Factoids from the factory tour as I remember them at random:
204 cars assembled in Zuffenhausen presently each day.
Approx. 70% 991 and 30% Boxster.
Apparently no Boxster being done at Karman Osnabruck right now. Cayman only. And around 60 Caymans are being done per day at that location.
Almost 80% of cars are being ordered painted in standard & metallic 'somber' colors. 'Black', 'Silver', 'White', Greys, etc. Only about 19.5% in what could be considered bright colors - 'Guards Red', 'Racing Yellow', etc.
Only .5% of production being built as PTS.
Two shifts. One starts around 6 AM. The last shift ends around 9:15 PM. Almost all parts that are put on painted chassis are coming in from vendors outside Zuffenhausen. So Zuffenhausen is primarily assembly, rather than manufacturing facility, according to the technical definition given to us today.
Reason for only two shifts (rather than third to meet demand) is that the truck arrivals for 'just in time' & 'just in sequence' would be considered too noisy by nearby residential neighbors. They are trying to avoid the 70 or so trucks that would be needed to supply the assembly line of that third 'grave yard' shift.
The average part arrives and it's installed on a car that same day. That average part, after its arrival, ends up on a car during the same two shift that day. Got that? He described the process as one in which the 'average part was there (in 'transit' warehouse) for .8 of a day'. Some of the parts end up on a car within 20 minutes of its arrival at the receiving 'warehouse' - which for the assembly area is the old brick building built by Reutter. They are sent up via automated trolley carts to each work station.
On average the line is moving around one meter per minute (I think that is what he said). The average work station is 3 minutes something. Workers often switch stations after a few shifts or days to prevent monotony. So they are cross-trained in various work stations & skills.
Wiring harness is pre-tested a few days before it's put into the car it was designed for (each wiring harness is custom made to the model & options ordered by customer).
Doors are taken off first work station and sent downstairs to be 'fully assemble' and it's reunited with the chassis at later station in the process.
To level the playing field of time, a complicated model is followed by several uncomplicated models. That allows the workers more time to finished the harder to do 'RS', Turbo S, gt3 and breeze through the easier (next in line) Boxsters or Carrera Coupes.
Some 130/140 trucks arrive each day with the parts needed for that assembly process. Trucks are not coming from a particular supplier full of just the part that vendor makes. It goes around picking up from a variety of suppliers just those pieces that will be installed on the cars assembled mainly that day! Think of it as a shopper going to the supermarket to get the ingredients need for ONLY that day's meals.
All petrol engines are being built at Zuffenhausen for car/SUV production at Zuffenhausen, Osnabruck & Leipzig. There are two more smaller motor assembly lines (one in Germany and the other one abroad - Hungary or Slovakia?) doing diesel or Hybrid. I am a little fuzzy on what he told us about this.
Trucks come each day to pick up engines required for 'just in time' & 'just in sequence' assembly of Caymans at Osnabruck and Cayennes/Macan at Leipzig. So Werk III engine assembly plant itself acts like a vendor to other Porsche facilities...and its logistical activities mirror those of other 'vendors' that in turn service Zuffenhausen's needs.
No photos of morning tour since all cameras & cell phones are 'secured in a locker' before tour begins.
07-16-2015, 11:35 AM
