Two Worlds (don't exactly) Collide!!!

June 15, 2015 - Stuttgart, Germany

Today is an interesting day of contrasts.

Immersed in the old world charm of Europe. The history and architecture. Walking down cobble stoned streets seeing buildings and monuments that are hundreds of years old.  Seeing the landscapes and geography referenced in history books.  

 

All while the modern day Europe goes on all around us.  The bustling of people rushing through the train stations; coming to work, or travelling between cities. The large modern shopping streets. Everyone tethered to their mobile devices. And the constant humming background sound of any city, people in cars and buses going about their daily lives. 

Today, we spent the day touring through two automotive manufacturing plants. Starting at Porsche plant in Zuffenhausen on the north side of Stuttgart. Followed by a tour of the Mercedes plant in Sindelfingen. 

Both companies have a long history. From the early days of the atomobile in the early 1900's:

to modern, high performance complex vehicles:

Being able to tour both Porsche and Mercedes on the same day was a unique and enlightening experience. While there are the obvious differences in the two manufacturers vehicles themselves, the tours of the two plants exposed many very common and familiar Lean methods, though presenting differences in their implementation.  Seeing the visual signals of green, yellow and red lights to show the status of each workstation or cell; visual management boards to show those on the shop floor what their targets are, and how they are tracking; kanban systems everywhere for parts and inventory replenishment, all elements of Lean that are extremely familiar sights. We could have as easily been back in the Nissan Opama plant on the outskirts of Tokyo, 

Yet, there was clearly a difference in the way the two organizations embraced the Lean approach.  The Mercedes plant, albeit a busier and higher output plant than Porsche ( by a factor of 7 or 8 times as many vehicles per year), was much more like what we experienced in Japan,  Serious, focused, efficient - very much driving to efficiency KPI's.  It was palpable and clearly evidenced by the actions and behaviours on the line.  No-nonesnse keep things flowing to meet the planned output. 

The approach at Porsche was demonstratively different.  The carsu are spectacular. The quality exceptional. But there was a clearly higher "social" engagement within and between the teams. This at least appeared to create a more engaged and happy work groups and teams. All of the same Lean elements werer there. The Andons, the visual management, the huddle boards.  But the team members appeared to be able to do more socializing while building incredible cars. 

So the juxtaposition: Old world vs modern manufacturing; two different approaches to Lean adoption; two different outcomes/benchmarks - but consistently producing high quality, wonderfully engineered, aesthetically beautiful cars.  A pleasure to watch and experience today,

Followed by a wonderful opportunity to refelct and connect. All in all  - an incredibly successful and enlightening day!!  Looking forward to tomorrow!!