Today we went to Škoda Auto and toured their facilities. First, we had a tour of the museum and saw the evolution of their cars over time. Škoda started as a motorized bike company and evolved into cars and competitive motorsport vehicles. I learned that they used to put the blood type of both drivers on the outside of the car in case something happened. Very efficient. I also learned that Škoda used to have an F3 car that performed pretty well.
Another interesting fact is that Škoda is completely a Czech company, but it is now part of Volkswagen. A lot of Czechs disapprove of this merger, but ultimately, it has kept Škoda alive.
After lunch, we visited two different factories. In the first, we saw the creation of parts, and then we watched the assembly of cars. It was mind-blowing to see robots operating across the entire warehouse, flawlessly and quickly combining and welding parts. The second factory was where the cars were being assembled by people, and we learned that they have 2,000 workers employed for this process. This is somewhat uncommon in car manufacturing because it is usually more automated.
I started wondering about the cost-to-benefit ratio of replacing these skilled workers with robots. I can’t imagine how expensive the robots are, or how much energy and effort it takes to code and maintain them—and whether that investment outweighs what a human can do in that part of the assembly line.
Swanson School of Engineering 