2012. USA. The PBS Newshour. During the European debt crisis. About two great German Mittelstand companies, small- to medium-sized companies.
VW advanced manufacturing
Richard Hammond visits the Wolfsburg Volkswagen Factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, and gets an exclusive inside look on their new robotic arm tech, and their unique chairs built to quickly get human workers in and out of a car.
Volkswagen is known for its emphasis on quality and precision in its production processes, which is a key factor in the company’s success as a leading global automotive manufacturer.
German manufacturing
YouTube comments:
“Title: This is the reason, but we do not know the reason for the video — I think the title should be the greatness of German craftsmanship.”
“The highest metal process and materials are still kept in Anglo nations of US and UK.”
German artisans
Germans believe that processes — how the work is done — are the key to success. Americans, however, favor relationships, or how to gain and retain customers.
By tradition, Germany is more a culture of artisans (Handwerkerkultur) than of traders (Händlerkultur). The Germans have always made things. And they believe that process — how the work is done — is the key to success. Good processes lead to good products, bad processes to bad ones.
One well-known German manager, Klaus-Hardy Mühdeck, the CIO of ThyssenKrupp, is even nicknamed the Prozesspapst, the Process Pope, and has changed his title to Chief Process Officer. Because processes govern the internal workings of a company, whoever has the say over process has the say over how the work is done, and thus over the company. As the Germans see it process is power. And Germans want the power. Who doesn’t?
BMW robotics
BMW Car Factory Robots- Fast Extreme Automatic Production Manufacturing: BMW X2, i8, new BMW X7 and 5- Series Production Assembly Line.
YouTube comments:
“I am an industrial engineer and there us much more behind this than just the robots. The system had to be designed perfectly to prevent bottleneck. Imagine step 1 took 2 hours, step 2 4 hours, and step 3 30 minutes. In you only had 8 hours a day the maximum amount of cars you could output would be 2. They had to time every one of those stations perfectly to prevent production build ups and so cars can flow from station to station preventing waiting and excess motion. Very well done with much less variability than human systems.”
“I have noticed from several videos that German manufactures use more robots in car making compared to Japan where there seems to be a fine balance btwn human craftsmanship and robotics….could that explain the difference in reliability btwn Japanese and German cars?”
“I can’t wait till they’re poppin out terminators with that kind of speed and efficiency. All joking aside, there is something slightly unsettling about these machines. Hopefully when AI becomes self aware they don’t resent us for making robots our slaves.”
Max Weber
For the German thinker Max Weber bureaucracy was positive, modern, effective, efficient, just.
German processes, and the way in which German colleagues live them, can come across to non-German colleagues as bureaucratic.
But what if German processes possess the qualities that Weber described in bureaucracy?
New media – New political parties
Before the Internet offered new ways to communicate, small political parties in Germany had barely a chance to make it into the Bundestag, or parliament. By law they have to receive at least 5% of the vote.
Each and every political party receives government subsidies to finance their election campaigns, but based on how many votes they get. The more votes received, the more money to run campaigns. The problem for new parties is that they have to first finance their campaigns out of their own pocket in order to gain any degree of name recognition.
Traditional modes of political advertising are simply too expensive for start-up parties. They can never get enough voter momentum to receive significant amounts of money from the government. A catch-22 situation, or chicken and egg situation.
The rules of the game have changed, however, with the Internet: Facebook, Twitter, and other kinds of social media. Now small, unknown parties like the Piratenpartei, literally Pirate Party, are able to compete with the major, long-established political parties: Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Free Democrats, Green Party.
Mercedes C-Class 2022
The bestselling Mercedes-Benz model series over the past decade will start production in Bremen, the lead plant in the global C-Class production network. This will shortly be followed by start-ups at international locations in Beijing, China and East London, South Africa.
YouTube comments:
“My 9 year old C350 is still solid and tight as a drum in terms of build quality and how the materials held up. Hopefully these keep that going.”
“We’ve come to an age of true automation. Amazing work! Feels like a sci-fi movie in which humans are the supporting cast only.”
“Being an owner of 2 New ordered Benz, I have to say this. The quality of my W204 was superior than my American built W205. My W204 was build in Germany with pride and you can tell it whereas my W205 was just put together because of the buck and no pride = Pegged with problem after problem taking years under warranty to sort out with the help of Mercedes Germany. It is no wonder, Mercedes Germany now gives American dealerships a direct contact to help solve problem with their cars.”
Rules of the Game
Those who write the rules of the game, have the best chance of winning the game. Processes – how the work is done – make up the rules of the game. Within companies. Where the product is critical to success. Where “a better mousetrap” really can, for the most part, sell itself.
Let’s march it backwards. Customer. Product. Manufacturing. Product development. Science and engineering. German. The core is science and engineering. In Germany scientists and engineers are king. They enjoy the prestige. Herr Dr. Soandso. Even better, Herr Professor Dr. Soandso.
Let’s march it backwards. Customer. Solution and profitability. Problem and pain. Relationship management. Sales. Marketing. American. The core is understanding the market, maintaining a constant close relationship with the customer, understanding and meeting needs. The customer is king. Those close to the royal court are king-too. They enjoy the prestige. The insider. The trusted.
Germans want to have the say about process, about how the work is done. For them it is make or break, success or failure. It’s the name of the game. Americans are happy to concede it, as long as the Germans concede to them the customer.
Mistaken thinking, or at most half-thinking. On both sides.
Haimer in Germany
CNC Machine Shop Tour. Titan Gilroy takes you on a VIP Tour through the Haimer manufacturing plant in Germany. Epic innovation. 170 CNC Machines and a workforce that is highly skilled.
YouTube comments:
“We need more Titan videos. As a German I should add that we also need to bring manufacturing back. Our industry has been very keen on outsourcing production to other EU and non-EU countries. It starts with the identity and our core competences. Time to get that back, especially in the minds of the general public.”
“Glad to see a CEO who knows what he’s talking about and leading from the front….from tools to machining processes to tolerances etc….German engineering at its best….would love to walk through that shop.”
“Absolutely incredible, as a CNC instructor it’s been extremely difficult to get full classes going. Granted our program is 12 weeks and not 3.5 years but its fully funded. I feel like they pulled the trades out of schools and pushed college onto high schoolers when the trades are a more realistic approach for many teenagers. Honestly I wish I had known sooner how satisfying a career in machining could be now I’m trying to inspire a new generation who has no idea that there’s a career path for them that doesn’t involve 4 years of college.”