To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Professional MBA Automotive Industry a field trip to German Automotive and Supply Industry in the Stuttgart area took place from March 21 to 24, 2019. It allowed the participants to get deeper insights into the processes in the automotive industry in Germany.

GoTech Fahrzeugentwicklungs- & KonstruktionsgmbH, opens an external URL in a new window is a family-owned company and based in Weissach. GoTech is a service provider for automobile manufacturers which develops parts and provides engineering services from conceptual design to serial production. In the presentation the experience of the company as a partner who is responsible for car parts was extensively presented and discussed. During the tour participants could see the different solutions this company offers. They were particularly surprised how a family-run company can be so successful in a highly competitive market!

ElringKlinger AG, opens an external URL in a new window has more than 100 years history and is one of the world leading suppliers in the automotive industry specialized in lightweight solutions, e-mobility, sealing and shielding technology, tooling, and engineering services. The company is developing battery and fuel cell technology as well as electric drive units to be one of frontrunners in the field of e-mobility. The company develops battery and fuel cell technology and electric drives, and demonstrated to our participants the manufacture of gaskets and parts for e-mobility systems.

Robert Bosch GmbH, opens an external URL in a new window is a leading supplier of technology and services for different industry sectors. It has four business sectors, such as mobility solutions, industrial technology, energy and building technology and consumer goods. With injection technology and power train peripherals for combustion engine and others the business sector “mobility solutions” has the biggest portion of the total group sales. The Bosch factory in Feuerbach is using Industry 4.0 approaches to optimize all processes. After the presentation of the company the tour started from the Human-Machine Collaboration station where participants could see how human workers and a robot work together and get in personal touch with APAS. The tour continued seeing the energy monitoring system as well as the online spindle monitoring system. In the shop floor they saw the production of sensors and other components.

The last item on the agenda was a visit with Porsche,, opens an external URL in a new window one of the most traditional German sports car manufacturers. With long tradition it has been producing different sport cars and SUVs. The transition to e-mobility was also visible at Porsche which introduced the pure electric car Taycan. Before the plant tour, Dr. Schöning, Director of Production and Logistics introduced the company and answered the questions. During the plant tour participants could see the engine production and the final assembly of these exclusive cars. 

It was an outstanding opportunity to get insights into different German automotive companies from a small engineering company (GoTech), to suppliers (ElringKlinger and Bosch) as well as an OEM (Porsche) how they are working with their production systems and preparing for the future challenges in the automotive industry, like e-mobility.

On the following weekend lectures were scheduled at the ESB Business School, opens an external URL in a new window in Reutlingen. On Saturday, Dr. Thomas Meichsner lectured on "Product Development Process" and on Sunday Prof. Vera Hummel taught "Industrial Engineering".

The participants and the programme team would like to thank the companies and ESB Business School for their hospitality and for providing many exciting insights!

About the Professional MBA Automotive Industry
The MBA program for the automotive and supplier industry, which is unique in Europe, celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2019. Since 2009 more than 140 graduates and participants from 27 different countries have completed the Professional MBA Automotive Industry (http://automotive.tuwien.ac.at , opens an external URL in a new window).