Re: Back from Audi, etc...(LONG)

[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne) wrote:

>I know, because I wrote some of the computer code that helped them do
>it - basically the process took orders and "knocked them down" into
>options, subassemblies and then components - right down to nuts, bolts
>and washers.  Each part was tagged and brought to the line for "its"
>car.   The next three cars are for Saudi Arabia?  Three gear knobs with
>Arabic script ... one's a Lotus Cortina?  One knob has a Lotus logo and
>Arabic script.  BTDT.

Saw the same thing when visiting the Opel plant in Antwerp a couple of
years ago, and the Dutch Volvo plant in Born. Impressive, especially when
you see that the car comes back from the paint line, the doors are taken
off and rejoin the very same car near the end of the production line,
fitted with the mechanisms and glass. No, not even one of the cars came out
with wrong-coloured doors. Also nice to see the very end of the lie, where
the wheels are put on. Alloys, steel with plastic hubcaps, etc...
everything was perfectly automated.
Everyone was going on about the 'marriage point' where the body receives an
engine, but I was more impressed with the logistics behind the whole
process, and the incredibly complicated software making this possible.

Tom