My visit to the Daimler- Benz Museum and Production complex.
Sindelfingen near Stuttgart.
23rdJune 1988.
My visit to Germany was not an official one. Those days I was working at Nairobi- the capital of Kenya in East Africa. It has been accepted as one of the best countries in the world for its scenic beauty, wild life, national parks and above all the uniform climatic conditions. The temperature varies between 12 to 30 degree Celsius and one didn’t need a fan or heater throughout the year as long as I stayed there. This country was also ruled by the British and got Independence after India. There was a facility at that time where airlines offered triangular tickets from Nairobi thru London onto Bombay and I often availed that.
I first went to Zurich where my brothers in law lived and made arrangements to go to Germany, where another brother-in-law and his German wife were staying. He came to pick me up from the Stuttgart railway station and we went straight to the museum and production complex of of Daimler-Benz at Sindelfingen, where he also worked. I enjoyed his midnight blue color Mercedes car and was surprised hearing old Malayalam KPAC drama songs. The factory was about 30 minute drives from station. He had registered me as a visitor. After tea and snacks, we waited at the lounge before being taken to an auditorium for a film show of the history of the company lasting 30 to 45 minutes.
The team explained a short history of Daimler Benz Company before the tour. Two German Engineers, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz did studies of developing automobiles separately and invented engines as early as 1885/86. Both being Germans, they later decided to work together and thus Daimler-Benz Company was formed in the year1926. That was the time the business of automobiles was an unknown and there were not many takers of this product. The founders realized that the whole idea was not found very attractive and economically feasible unless produced at scale. At that time a wealthy man approached them to place an order for about 350 cars, with a condition that the cars must be named after his daughter MERCEDES, which was a huge attraction to the company. Happily the order was signed. Even at that time, a huge photo of Mercedes was displayed at the entrance and I took permission to take a snap standing by the side.
After that about 30 of us-visitors were taken in an electric bus for the factory tour. The first processes were of metal cutting /punching to various sizes, in a row of hydraulic presses. At the next stage these were then sent to the body shop for automatic welding. This was quite a huge scene to me, because of its gigantic size – almost over 1000 Tons of sheet metal! From there it went to the paint shop for coating different layers of special paints. After that to the assembly section, where the engine, gear box and other transmission work, which they called “marriage section”. Then these would be moved to wiring, fixing of electric items, batteries and so on. Lastly the tyres, front and rear glasses, mirrors, wipers etc are fastened before being sent for inspection and intense testing. For each batch of cars produced, one car had to undergo crash test under their strict quality standards. What made me wonder struck was the precision at which the automatic machines were being managed without any hindrance in the process. Almost all parts from engine, gear box and various other components were managed from over one thousand vendors across the country. Rajettan –my brother in law, said the inventory was only for 24 hours. The management had given them a task to reduce it to 18 hours! The R&D was working very hard to eliminate the embedded wire in the rear mirror to be invisible. Places like India and Kenya, where our materials management was struggling to keep inventory for months, that they were talking of hours was another wonder for me!
If I remember, I then went to meet his boss, an Indian from SouthIndia Dr.Subramanyam, who was considered an authority in the field of gear box systems in Europe. He always busy making presentations and meetings. I noticed that the company was doing excellent human relations to keep the staff and workers happy. Staff was offered new cars every year at discounted rates. Most employees got cars at the beginning of the year, used them for a year and sold them at the year end in an immaculate condition after driving over the stipulated 750Km. This gave Rajettan a chance to visit his brothers in Switzerland over Christmas.
I could learn a lot from this visit technically and about management systems. It was my fortune to get such an opportunity to visit one of the largest auto mobile manufacturing factories in the Globe. After my full day journey and visit, I returned back to Switzerland by train, without going to his residence, due to lack of time. I promised to return to visit their house, in Black Forest, which I could do only after almost two decades.
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