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00:00This is a first for me. I'm on the footplate of a 67-tonne specialised freight locomotive,
00:11driving through Europe's largest private rail station. But I'm not here to talk about trains
00:19or railway stations. I'm here to talk about something much, much bigger.
00:23And incredibly, this entire train is about to drive into it.
00:35The biggest car factory in the world. Based in Wolfsburg, Germany, it's over three times
00:41the size of Monaco and manufactures cars at a phenomenal rate.
00:47This factory is so big, it can produce 800,000 cars a year. That's 3,600 every day. Or a
00:57new car every 16 seconds. That means since I started telling you this bit, another new
01:04car has rolled off its production lights. So how is that even possible?
01:08Here I go. I'm Richard Hammond. Hello. And I'm on a mission to explore the really, really
01:18big. Awesome. Top 10 list of insane things I've ever been involved in doing. This is number
01:24one. And yes, I know, everything seems big to me. Am I climbing into an engine? I feel like
01:30I've been shrunk. I'll uncover the incredible ways engineers have supersized our world. I'm
01:37sure it's supposed to be this close. I looked over my shoulder. I shouldn't have done that.
01:42Reveal that sometimes it's the tiny things that make the Titanic possible. Stealing their
01:48power. I could not do this for a job. And meet the heroes who design, build and live big.
01:59If I do it wrong, are we all blown to pieces? Maybe.
02:15This gigantic Volkswagen car factory is a titan of modern engineering. Since 1938, more than 46
02:24million cars from the original Beetle to the brand new Golf have rolled off this factory's
02:29production lights. It's so big, it has its own hotels, football team and orchestra. But
02:39this isn't just the story of a single factory. This is the story of an industry that has revolutionized
02:46mass production, changing the way things are made forever.
02:57It's Monday morning and I'm clocking in at the main entrance to the factory.
03:01Morgan. Here, your daily commute doesn't end when you enter the factory. This site is so big that
03:10getting workers from the factory gates to where they need to be is a challenge in itself. My
03:16journey goes on. Morgan. Hello, Morgan. Here we are at work, waiting for a bus to get to work. I'm on my way to meet the head of the body shop. But I have to find him for the
03:19first. Does the bus go to the body shop? I think so. Yes, it should be.
03:38I see.
03:45Apparently, one of the buildings here is a mile and a half long. Imagine building there. Putting down the first
03:51brick. Right, I've started, but a mile and a half to go.
03:55Does the body shop. The body shop is on the
03:58other side. Other side? Yes.
04:00The Volkswagen factory is massive.
04:03It covers a floor area of six and a half million square metres,
04:07connected by 60 kilometres of private rail network
04:10and 70 kilometres of road.
04:14I think this could be me.
04:17Have a nice day, everyone. Bye.
04:20Right, I'm here.
04:21I think.
04:23Well, it's a door.
04:30Right.
04:32I'm looking for the body shop.
04:33I don't even know if this is the body shop.
04:35It's got car bodies in it.
04:37Hello.
04:38You're on a visit.
04:39Yes.
04:39This is a factory visit.
04:41Nice bus.
04:43Right.
04:44It's full of tourists in a factory.
04:47That's how big this place is.
04:49People come to see it on holiday.
04:53It's a car factory.
04:54It's enormous.
04:58Hello.
04:58Excuse me.
04:59Do you know the way to the body shop?
05:01No.
05:01It's a kilometre and I'm going around there.
05:03Oh, right.
05:04Thank you very much.
05:07The body shop is that way.
05:09Two kilometres that way.
05:12This place is nuts.
05:14Right.
05:16Apparently, there are 6,000 bicycles like this one in the factory
05:21just to move people around on.
05:246,000.
05:26Morning.
05:27Still in the same factory.
05:32Presumably, if you got lost here, you'd never be found.
05:37There could be whole communities living in here
05:39who are unknown to the rest of humankind.
05:41I'm looking for Stefan Braun, the boss of the body shop,
05:46where all the parts to make the shell of a car
05:49are assembled and attached to the chassis.
05:53Are you Stefan?
05:54Yes, I am.
05:55Richard, good to see you.
05:56Come upstairs.
05:57Up here.
05:59I'm glad I found you.
06:01Yeah.
06:01Be careful.
06:02Be careful.
06:02Nice to see you.
06:03Nice to see you, too.
06:04It gets better when you're high up.
06:06Yeah.
06:07Look at this.
06:10Wow.
06:11This is your domain.
06:13Yeah.
06:13Land of the robots.
06:14Yeah.
06:14So this is early stages making the car.
06:24Yes.
06:25There is not a human being in there.
06:27No.
06:27That's just robots.
06:29They're working together like a ballet.
06:31How many robots on the whole site?
06:33The whole facility in total is 4,200 robots and body shop.
06:37But you spend most of your life hanging out with robots there.
06:40Yeah, that's my life.
06:41So you lord of the robots?
06:43Kind of.
06:46I'm doing it since 17, 18 years now.
06:49So I'm used to have my friends down there in yellow and orange.
06:54And what we're looking at down there
06:56is a sort of ruthless pursuit of efficiency.
07:00And that all comes out of the scale of this place, doesn't it?
07:03Yes.
07:04You get more out of a robot than out of a human.
07:06They don't make mistakes.
07:08Exactly.
07:08Oh, there's a man in there.
07:10He's born in.
07:10He's going to get eaten by them.
07:12He is right now doing maintenance.
07:14So occasionally there is human intervention.
07:17Yes.
07:19The first robots were introduced into the factory in 1983.
07:24Today, it simply couldn't turn out a car every 16 seconds without thousands of them.
07:30My grandfather worked in the car industry.
07:33At Mulliner's in Birmingham, where they built cars by hand, out of metal, wood and leather.
07:40I don't know what he'd make of this.
07:42I think he'd be absolutely fascinated and loving.
07:45Or he'd say, Christ, you've done me out of a job.
07:51It's amazing.
07:52This vast space might be full of robots, but somehow the lack of humans makes this enormous
08:03factory feel a bit empty.
08:05Although 63,000 people work on this site, so far I've only seen about 10.
08:11And it doesn't seem like there's anyone here, where the cars are painted.
08:15Oh, wow.
08:17This is still land of the robots.
08:19Look at them.
08:20This is no standard paint shop.
08:22It's the biggest car paint shop in Europe, spread out over eight floors and covering an area the
08:29Grand Central Station.
08:31And still, every car is completed specifically to an individual customer's requirements.
08:37There are more than 18 kilometres of conveyor inside the paint shop, and 360 cars come through here
08:45every hour.
08:46And like other bits of the factory, all the work here is being done by robots.
08:50But look, even they have to wear overalls in here as well.
08:55That's the most amazing thing is, not every car that comes through is the same colour.
08:59So you might have a blue car followed by a white one, not a problem.
09:02But they can change colour instantly, and they do that by having nozzles and hoses for each colour
09:07that rotate at the head of the robot, like the revolver on a revolver.
09:13Ensuring that the paint is applied efficiently and evenly requires some very clever science.
09:22It's all to do with static electricity, giving a positive and negative charge to the car bodies
09:28and the paint so they are attracted to one another.
09:30As I shall now demonstrate using this Van de Graaff generator, this box of polystyrene balls,
09:35and my hand.
09:37Imagine my hand is the car body, the balls are the paint.
09:40Put the body in the paint, and not a lot happens, really.
09:44We're in balance.
09:46What I need to do now is give myself a positive charge.
09:49I put my hand on there before I switch it on.
09:52I'm told that's very important.
09:53I'm standing on a mat to insulate myself, so I'm going to turn it on.
09:56I can feel the hairs on my hand standing up, probably on my head as well, as I'm taking
10:03on a positive charge.
10:06Now, by contrast, the polystyrene balls have a slight negative charge, so that means they
10:12should be attracted to my hand.
10:13So, plunge car body into paint.
10:17Whoa!
10:18You can see immediately they're going berserk.
10:23They're sticking to me like mad.
10:25And actually, the reason they're pinging off is that they're actually repelling each other,
10:29and eventually it's smoothing down until it's just one layer thick.
10:33That's how they use electricity, to get an even layer of paint.
10:39Here in the paint shop, the same principle is used on a supersized scale.
10:44First, the cars are dipped in a bath with a high voltage running through it to give them
10:48a positive charge.
10:50Then they apply an opposite voltage across the painting nozzles to give the paint a negative
10:55charge.
10:56This means every paint particle is attracted to the metal of the car.
11:01The problem now is I'm filled with electricity and I've got to get rid of it.
11:06So, let's get rid of these polystyrene balls first, best I can.
11:09I can't just let go of the machine because I'll get a zap.
11:12Right, apparently if I touch that wooden stick, that earths me.
11:18I think I can now turn the machine off without getting zapped.
11:24I so can't.
11:28I can't turn this off.
11:31Help.
11:33Come back after the break.
11:35I'll have sorted this out.
11:37Probably.
11:41Next, I finally get to meet some human workers and it turns out they're just as efficient as
11:47the robots.
11:48It's like landing a space shuttle, that one.
11:50And I discover the one small thing that can bring the world's biggest car factory to a
11:55standstill.
11:56Oh, I've stopped the production line.
11:59Yes.
11:59It's my second morning in Wolfsburg, Germany, and I'm going to be joining the 20,000 people
12:16who work on the assembly lines of the world's biggest car factory as their new recruit.
12:22Thanks for bringing it around.
12:24I realise I run the risk of being late, but I wanted to do this, ride the assembly line.
12:41There's 12 miles of this.
12:43Each station has just 60 seconds to complete their task or run the risk of stopping the
12:47line entirely.
12:49And it's all about efficiency.
12:51Even the floor is made specially out of wood to put a spring in the workers' steps.
12:55Anyway, I've got to get on.
12:58Nearly there.
13:00Over 800,000 cars roll off these assembly lines every year.
13:05There are four different models being assembled at the same time, each with its own tailor-made
13:10specification.
13:11Everything relies on the absolute precision and efficiency of the workforce.
13:16No pressure on me, then.
13:18Hello, Hammond, reporting for duty.
13:20What am I going to do?
13:21After vast rooms full of robots, actual humans, and Songweil here is my new supervisor.
13:29Right, I've been briefed.
13:31Wait till car comes along, put onto roof of car.
13:36Glack, you sure?
13:38Yes.
13:40Yeah, she seems to be under the impression I actually work here now, so I'm going to be
13:43gone for a while.
13:47Now?
13:49Right.
13:49I mean, you think of all these various...
13:52I can't see...
13:53I'm too sure.
13:55One, two.
13:57Oh, it's in.
13:59Oh, yeah, that's hot.
14:01It's like landing a space shuttle, that was.
14:03That was intense at work.
14:05Yeah, I reckon I'll be in for a company award.
14:07At least employee of the month.
14:09Probably something a bit grander.
14:11Right, it's silver.
14:13Silver.
14:13Well, you know, I'll be managing this place soon.
14:18It's kind of a crowning glory, really.
14:20Until I've done my bit, the car just doesn't look finished.
14:25If, by the way, you've ordered one of these in white, know that I finished it.
14:30Well, nearly finished it.
14:32Where's this go?
14:34In there?
14:34It's going well.
14:44It's going well.
14:45Quality job.
14:50Yep.
14:52She's just finishing it off, but I did all the hard work.
14:55Every car ordered from this factory will have a unique specification.
15:02This is a complex operation that relies on a global network of suppliers.
15:07Take this hot hatch, for example.
15:10The steel comes from Belgium.
15:13The steering wheel, Romania.
15:14The front lights, Czech Republic.
15:16The back lights, Poland.
15:18The wheels are from Korea.
15:19The tyres from Turkey.
15:20The electronics from Japan, China and Malaysia.
15:23I could go on, but I shan't, because this car has around 10,000 parts.
15:29In all, 2,600 suppliers send those parts to this factory from all over the world.
15:35Now, you'd think they'd stockpile parts on site so they'd never run out of anything.
15:40But they'd need a warehouse the size of New York's Central Park.
15:45What they do is much cleverer.
15:47It's a process called Just-In-Time,
15:49where parts arrive into the factory and onto the assembly line at the moment they're needed.
15:55And it's revolutionised manufacturing.
15:58This vast space is not a warehouse filled with months and months' worth of car parts.
16:05Around here, they call it the supermarket.
16:07Parts are shipped in here from all over the world, all day, every day.
16:11They're not stockpiled.
16:11There's just enough delivered to keep the factory working.
16:16Those parts are then delivered from here to where they're needed, on the line, in the right order, just in time.
16:23To give me an idea how lean the whole process is,
16:26I'm putting in a shift with supermarket supervisor Benny,
16:30who's worked in the factory for 10 years.
16:33You see on this monitor that you need to pick a part.
16:38Yeah.
16:39And you need to look for the light.
16:41Oh, this light here?
16:42I thought it was just, like, to make the place jolly.
16:44So it's this light here.
16:45OK, I go here where this light is.
16:47Yes, take both pieces.
16:49Oh, look, that's where the dials go.
16:50So this piece you need to put in here.
16:52Yep.
16:53Very good.
16:54And this piece you need to put in here.
16:55And now you need to buzzer.
16:57And now you need to pack a second item.
17:02Evans! Evans!
17:04And please put it in here.
17:06Put it where? There?
17:07Yes.
17:07And then use the buzzer again.
17:09Boom!
17:10Wow!
17:11Is that good?
17:12That was amazing.
17:14Right.
17:14So these parts that we're sending out, how long will they sit in here for you?
17:18On average, for one to six hours.
17:21Well, then it's gone.
17:22Then it's gone.
17:23So you only hold about six hours worth of parts?
17:26Yes.
17:26Then they start running out.
17:28Yes.
17:28That's how just in time it is.
17:30Yes, that's true.
17:31I'm probably not doing this as quickly as I'm supposed to, am I?
17:34No, you're not.
17:34We need to push the net of that.
17:35That means, der Faktor ist broken.
17:39Der Faktor ist kaputt.
17:41OK.
17:42Right, here we go.
17:42Hurry up.
17:45If I've learned one thing about just in time,
17:47it's that it really means totally lean and efficient.
17:51I mean, this box is leaving with just three specific car parts in it.
17:55destined for a specific car on a specific line.
17:59And it will arrive at that car, well, just in time.
18:05That's it.
18:06It's that finely balanced.
18:09Actually, you're getting better and better and better.
18:12Natural skill.
18:12I'm quite proud of you.
18:14Thank you very much.
18:16You can work in our picking area, actually.
18:19We'll have to talk about pay and holidays.
18:21From the supermarket, the specific parts for individual cars
18:27are sent to the correct assembly lines to be fitted.
18:31But keeping track of millions of components
18:34takes more than a spreadsheet.
18:36The quantity of information, of data,
18:40flying around this factory at any second of any day
18:43is way too much for a human brain to comprehend.
18:46Every robot, every human worker on every mile,
18:49every kilometre of line needs to know what part to deliver,
18:53what part to fit to what car and when.
18:56The answer to how all of that happens is here.
19:00This machine might look a bit like one of those
19:02fortune-telling machines at a fairground.
19:05It doesn't tell your fortune,
19:07but it does tell the future of a car
19:08because it's fitting them with RFID tags.
19:12A deceptively simple and tiny radio frequency identification tag
19:17is attached to the chassis of each car.
19:19It contains every bit of information
19:22about the vehicle being made.
19:24And using electromagnetic fields,
19:27the robots identify the thousands of individual components needed
19:31to turn that chassis into a unique car.
19:35So that one piece of metal was just a car part until now.
19:38There, that's it, that's the moment.
19:39That's now a car, officially.
19:41Workers here call that moment the baptism.
19:44That was just another car part delivered here just in time.
19:48When it's been stamped with that ID,
19:50that will bring with it all the information
19:52to coordinate this whole endeavour
19:55to turn that piece of metal into an entire car
19:58built specifically to somebody's taste.
20:01That is the small thing that makes the big possible, no doubt.
20:06For this hyperfactory to produce a vehicle every 16 seconds,
20:11all 63,000 employees must be kept working at full efficiency.
20:15To do that, the factory has its own secret weapon.
20:20I'll give you a clue.
20:21It weighs 170 grams.
20:23It's 25 centimetres long.
20:25And if you look it up in the VW handbook,
20:27it comes under the product number 199398500A.
20:31And this component is not for the cars,
20:36it's for the workers.
20:38This is the only car factory in the world
20:41to have its own sausage factory on site.
20:45Deepa.
20:45Hi.
20:46Hello.
20:47Hello.
20:47Nice to meet you.
20:48Are we allowed to shake hands?
20:49Yes, no problem.
20:50Right, okay.
20:51Right, this is the start of your process.
20:52Yes.
20:52Of your factory.
20:53We make here the best sausages in the world.
20:56But of course you do.
20:57Yes.
20:57I wasn't going to say otherwise.
20:58You would like to cut the meat.
21:00Whoa.
21:01Here.
21:02There.
21:03Right.
21:03How long have you been making sausages at the factory?
21:05Since 1973.
21:08How many sausages?
21:09We have produced last year
21:11six pound eight million sausages
21:14in this factory here.
21:16In here?
21:17Yeah.
21:17And Volkswagen have produced
21:19in the world
21:206.2 million cars.
21:22So you made more sausages in here
21:24than Volkswagen made cars worldwide.
21:27Yes, maybe.
21:28Okay.
21:30That's a lot of sausages.
21:31Yes.
21:32You need sausages
21:33for the good work
21:34for making cars.
21:35Okay.
21:36This is the secret spices of currywurst.
21:39It's so important for the sausages.
21:41Secret spices of what?
21:42Of curry?
21:43Currywurst.
21:44That is actually fantastic.
21:46Yes.
21:46You will make?
21:47Yeah.
21:48Like the car factory,
21:50the sausages are made
21:51on a production line,
21:52which Dietmar wants me to join.
21:54What's the worst
21:56that can happen?
21:57I'm sorry.
21:59You can't work with Sigrid?
22:01Sigrid will show me what to do.
22:03Yeah.
22:03I've been here years
22:04and I've been here to the grocery store.
22:08Sigrid Bynumann started working
22:10for Volkswagen over 50 years ago,
22:13sewing the stitching onto leather seats.
22:15She's worked in many areas of the factory
22:17and loves working in the sausage department.
22:21Well, until I came along.
22:23And then I squeeze it back up.
22:25I was going to do that.
22:27You're making it hurt her.
22:28You're making it more complicated
22:30and shouting at me.
22:31Mark, not mine.
22:33Yeah.
22:34Uh-oh.
22:35I've stopped the production line.
22:37Yes.
22:38Sorry, everybody.
22:39Sorry.
22:40Is this sausages?
22:41It's a special one for you.
22:43Okay.
22:44It's a new technique.
22:45And you do it like that,
22:46you'll make seven million sausages this year.
22:48Yes.
22:49Back in 1973,
22:52the factory decided it was more cost-effective
22:55to make the sausages
22:56that fed the tens of thousands of workers here.
22:59Now, Volkswagen's Currywurst sausages
23:01have become a global phenomenon,
23:04selling in a dozen countries worldwide.
23:06And the hungry factory workers love them so much
23:09that 2.6 million of them are eaten every year.
23:13Every day, you taste it here.
23:15This is work.
23:16Yes.
23:16This is work.
23:18Okay.
23:18So, you must taste it.
23:20Okay.
23:22That is good, actually.
23:24I can taste those spices,
23:26that I smell when we make.
23:27Sigrid, these are good sausages.
23:28We did a good job.
23:30That's a classic.
23:32How important are these sausages to the factory?
23:34I mean, if you stopped making them,
23:36what would happen earlier?
23:36It's very important.
23:38When we don't make sausages,
23:40we don't produce cars.
23:42Yeah.
23:43Next, I get to grips with the biggest tools
23:46in the factory.
23:47Oh, this is so manly.
23:50And I get to blow my own trumpet,
23:52all in the name of science.
23:54Keeping the world's largest car factory here in Wolfsburg, Germany,
24:10running depends on deliveries of ready-made parts all day, every day, from all over the world.
24:16But the biggest car parts need large-scale heavyweight manufacturing,
24:21which, for 80 years, has happened on-site.
24:25This is the biggest, noisiest, and heaviest machinery in the whole factory.
24:31This is the press shop.
24:33Inside there are six huge pressing tools that are cutting and shaping panels at a phenomenal rate.
24:42So, raw steel goes in that end, and then fully-formed car body panels come out at that end.
24:49It's all powered by hydraulics, and it can exert an unimaginable 8,000 tons of pressure.
24:56So, that's like having all the metal in the Eiffel Tower land on your head.
25:01It's so powerful that this shop had to be built on its own separate foundations.
25:06Otherwise, buildings on the other side of the factory complex would shake when it was working.
25:13And they don't just have one or two of these presses.
25:16There are 20 of them in this shop, like this.
25:21In total, the press shop makes half a million car parts a day.
25:26But, of course, they can't just make half a million bonnets.
25:29They also need to make all the other parts.
25:32Oh, this is so manly!
25:37This is about as bonched as I've ever been.
25:40That means changing the huge pressing tools six times a day.
25:44And the man in charge of doing that is veteran carmaker Klaus Wehrmann,
25:49who has over 30 years' experience across almost every department in this huge factory.
25:55How much does that weigh?
25:56It's nearly 25 to 30 tons here.
26:00You don't want that on your foot?
26:01No, no, no, no, no. That's not good.
26:04So this is the pin that holds the top of the press at the bottom.
26:06But if you look round here, there's just a little collar.
26:10And if you just lift that up and get it in the right place, it goes through.
26:17To be fair, I can't really mess this up.
26:22Then it's done. Gotcha.
26:23To keep pace with the factory's insatiable appetite for parts, the press shop is designed to keep downtime for the machines to a minimum, including changing the pressing tools.
26:37So you want to start the tool change?
26:39Yeah.
26:40So you have to push here.
26:41And that is it? Just push that button?
26:43Yes, push it.
26:44I've pushed it.
26:47Positioned on movable platforms, the pressing tools that make one part slide out the back,
26:52and the new ones that make a different part slide in from the front.
26:56It's simple but fantastically efficient, so the press is up and running again within just seven minutes.
27:05So that's new tools are in.
27:07In just moments, hundreds of tons of metal have been swapped out one set for another,
27:12and they can make the switch from bashing out bonnets to doors that quickly.
27:18And that tells you how important it is that this thing doesn't stop for too long.
27:22Because if it ain't working, they're not making car body panels. And if they've got no car body panels, they can't make cars.
27:28Turning out a new car every 16 seconds means these presses pound away 24-7.
27:35But if a machine breaks down for too long, it could stop production.
27:39So how do they keep these gigantic machines healthy?
27:42The answer is they have their very own doctor, who uses a very specialized piece of equipment.
27:48What is it?
27:52In short, this is the so-called acoustic camera system.
27:55Acoustic camera.
27:56Acoustic camera.
27:58It consists of 48 high-quality microphones in a ring.
28:03So these are?
28:04Don't point on it.
28:05I didn't touch it.
28:06Just touch it.
28:06They're very expensive.
28:07And an optical camera in the middle.
28:10Right.
28:11And these microphones detect the incoming sound waves,
28:14and these are mapped on an optical photo.
28:19So it can show you visually what it can hear?
28:23Yeah.
28:24It's like a doctor putting his stethoscope on a patient's chest.
28:27It's listening for faults rather than looking for them.
28:30Listening for problems that we can't locate with our ears and our eyes, but the system can.
28:38When healthy, or rather working with optimum efficiency, every machine has its own unique
28:44sound, or acoustic fingerprint. The camera can detect even the slightest variation,
28:51identifying minor faults before the machine breaks and affects the factory's output.
28:57These sound variations are far too subtle for human ears. But what if the variations were a little
29:03less subtle?
29:05I want to do an experiment where we can hear as well as see the problem. And to do that,
29:10I've borrowed a trumpet and the factory band. Maestro, ladies, gentlemen. Hello. I'm the new member.
29:20You're really pleased about this. We are going to make amazing music together.
29:25But I suspect there may be a problem with this band, and we're going to find out what it is.
29:29Over to you, Maestro.
29:30One, two, one, two, three.
29:38So, imagine this band. Complete with multi-talented sound doctor Marcus, also on trumpet, is a press
29:46machine. And each instrument, one of its moving parts. When they're all working properly, in this
29:53case, playing all the right notes, in the right order, they sound in perfect harmony.
30:05Now, here's the same tune again.
30:07Two, one, two, one, two, one. This time, with one minor difference.
30:50I was on it. Where were you?
31:07Now, I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, but I thought that went well.
31:11Well done. Good work.
31:14So there's a problem with this band. We're confident of that. It has a problem.
31:17And it appears to be me.
31:20How does it know that I was playing more freestyle jazz than you were?
31:24I can explain to you this part that is wrong.
31:27And I can see the timing is not good.
31:30There's a tone in the wrong time slot.
31:34A bit jazz.
31:36It's jazz, but it's wrong.
31:38It sounds terrible.
31:41So I have to localize where it comes from. And unfortunately, it's you.
31:47So if that whole band were a machine and it were all closed up with all cases around it, it can still see where the problem is.
31:54Yeah. And that's the point here. Because you don't want those gigantic presses to be playing freestyle.
32:01You really want them to be working absolutely as they should be.
32:05Yeah.
32:06I'm leaving the band. I'm leaving.
32:08Next, I embark on some all-terrain testing.
32:13Thanks, guys. That was fun. I thought I was going to be in a car.
32:18Oh, and I'm blowing another, much bigger horn.
32:21Oh, wow. Just drove a train.
32:24I've got an access-all-areas pass to the world's biggest car factory.
32:38But there is one place on this site I haven't been allowed into. Yet.
32:45Through there is the factory's top-secret research and development centre.
32:50And I do mean top-secret.
32:52The secrets held in there are big.
32:55This is all part, remember, of a multi-billion-dollar industry.
32:58And the work they do in there will play its role in defining the future of that industry.
33:04They've agreed to let me in, but I'm not allowed to film anything between the entrance here and their brand-new test centre.
33:11So you'll have to excuse me if I fade to black for a moment.
33:16Having an on-site R&D department gives Volkswagen a competitive edge
33:20to stay at the forefront of a constantly evolving industry.
33:24Areas such as electrification, digitisation and automated driving are the future.
33:30And this enormous centre is where the future begins.
33:33Ansel.
33:35Hi, Richard.
33:36Welcome to our new wind tunnel.
33:40Ah.
33:41Wow.
33:42I think that's the fan.
33:44Yes, you're right.
33:44That's the fan with a diameter of 8 metres.
33:47It's quite big.
33:498 metres?
33:50Yes.
33:513.1 megawatts.
33:52So that generates the wind.
33:54Yes.
33:54And because of the size of this factory, you can have this huge R&D place.
33:59You've got, what, 10,000 people in R&D alone.
34:02Yes.
34:03Which means you can conceive an idea for a car and you can develop and test it here in this one big place.
34:08That's the idea, to have everything here so we can test in the condition which is required
34:13so you don't have to go anywhere in the world.
34:15So, in many ways, it's really, really big here because you've sort of encompassed the entire world in one place.
34:22Yes, you're right.
34:23Clever.
34:24To show me just how clever, Anselm and his team want to demonstrate what their state-of-the-art wind tunnel can do.
34:31This is all about putting a car through its paces to perfect the driving experience.
34:37And given that I know a thing or two about cars, they've asked for my expert opinion.
34:43OK.
34:44Come on, let's start with the wind.
34:45All right.
34:49Should we let the door open?
34:51The draft.
34:52So, increase the speed.
34:54OK.
34:55Cool.
34:56Good.
34:58It can generate wind.
35:00I'm up to 160 miles an hour.
35:04That's equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.
35:08I can barely stand.
35:11It looks like he's about to fly.
35:13I'm really glad I ate all that sausage earlier.
35:18A bit of ballast to hold me down right now.
35:26Perfect.
35:27So, let's start with the rain.
35:28And it can simulate driving rain, which is...
35:33Well, actually, it's really quite unpleasant.
35:37This is like a family holiday from the 1970s.
35:41Start the rain simulation, please, and switch on the light.
35:49I feel like a rotisserie chicken.
35:50It can simulate scorching desert heat with temperatures of 65 degrees C, thanks to its own inbuilt sun.
35:59So, now, start with the snow.
36:02Oh, God.
36:04They could even drop the temperature to minus 30 and simulate an arctic blizzard, which is probably useful if you live in the arctic.
36:14Okay, perfect.
36:18Richard, good job.
36:22Thanks, guys.
36:24That was fun.
36:25I thought I was going to be in a car.
36:28Creepy.
36:28When you produce enough cars every year to create a tailback from New York to Las Vegas, they have to be shifted off-site as quickly as they're made.
36:42Hence, 60 kilometers of track and the largest private rail station in Europe.
36:48But big infrastructure comes with its own problems.
36:52In the old days, freight leaving a factory might be loaded onto a train like this.
36:57A complete trainload of empty wagons would be shunted into place at dispatch.
37:02It's then loaded.
37:03Using ramps in between the wagons means the first cars can drive the full length of the train and it can all be filled in one go.
37:11But bear in mind, when it's 20 wagons long before they can hook it all up and depart, it takes time.
37:17So quicker is important.
37:19And the answer to that is over here.
37:25It's a sliding stage.
37:27Three wagons wide.
37:28And how it works is wonderfully simple.
37:32It moves sideways.
37:33Empty wagons can be shunted into empty bays.
37:36Cars can be loaded onto waiting wagons and fully loaded wagons can be hooked up to waiting trains.
37:41All at the same time.
37:43It's fast and it's flexible because each car only has to travel at most the length of one wagon.
37:51It is really, really clever.
37:53Ten trainloads carrying 1,800 cars leave the factory every day.
37:59I wonder if I can help.
38:02Gentlemen.
38:03Yes.
38:04Hello.
38:04Hello.
38:05Sorry I'm late.
38:05Welcome.
38:06Oh, we expected this.
38:07You're a British guy, huh?
38:08Apologies.
38:08Chaps, this is very exciting.
38:09So we're here to collect a train.
38:11Where is it?
38:11Let's go.
38:12Okay, there is our locomotive.
38:14You can see it.
38:15Right.
38:15We can bring the locomotive here to us, if you like.
38:18To the remote control.
38:19Bring it to us?
38:20Yeah.
38:21With that?
38:21Yeah.
38:22That's a remote control train.
38:23Yeah.
38:23Oh my word, I'm standing on a train set.
38:26And better still, Christoph and Bernd are giving me control of it.
38:32Right, what do I do?
38:34The road is set.
38:35Yeah.
38:36The signal.
38:38And then, to the front.
38:40How do you stop?
38:41Stop here.
38:43So I do that.
38:44Yes.
38:45Right.
38:46And then forwards.
38:47Yeah.
38:47It's moving.
38:48Oh, no, I'm scared.
38:50Where is it coming?
38:52Be careful.
38:52When do I start backing off?
38:54Okay.
38:56Oh, my God.
38:58It's my first time driving a train.
39:00Yeah, doing it good.
39:01It's coming.
39:02One stop.
39:04Runs on a bit.
39:06Oh, great.
39:07Oh, wow.
39:08Just drove a train.
39:1067 tons of locomotive.
39:12Controlled by me.
39:13In this, with this.
39:15Now to collect the cars.
39:17And who needs a driver's cab when you've got a remote control?
39:22Now we are going to full car train.
39:24Aren't we going to crash into it?
39:26No, it's not a problem.
39:28Safety driver.
39:30Still going quite fast.
39:32I am bracing.
39:34Bit of slowing.
39:36Oh, we stopped.
39:37So, Richard, we're not going downstairs.
39:39Can I stay here?
39:40Yeah.
39:41It'd be like being on Titanic.
39:44Wait, is that going to hit my head?
39:46Oh, God.
39:51Bert, you've got the hangar there.
39:55So, Richard, now we are ready and we can bring the cars all over the world.
39:58But not all cars leave by rail.
40:09Some customers want to take delivery directly from the factory.
40:13To make that possible, an on-site collection centre was built, which presented yet another big engineering challenge.
40:21The problem is, the factory is over there.
40:25The collection centre is over there.
40:27It's a distance of only a few hundred metres.
40:30But here's the thing.
40:31You're coming here to collect your brand new car.
40:33You want it to be exactly that.
40:35Unused.
40:36They needed to find a clever way of getting the cars from there to there without adding anything extra to the odometer.
40:42And this is what they came up with.
40:48That is the very end of the factory.
40:50These are coming straight off the production line.
40:52If they were bread rolls, they'd still be warm from the oven.
40:56And the thing is, there might be 63,000 people here making 800,000 cars a year.
41:00But to its new owner, each car is...
41:03It's a big deal.
41:04They need a bit of ceremony.
41:05They want to hand it to them on a plate.
41:08Literally.
41:09It'll be delivered to its new customer without its wheels turning.
41:12The automated conveyor whisks the cars away from the end of the factory, ready for the customer in just seven minutes.
41:19It's a brilliant system.
41:21But wait until you see the car park.
41:24There are two gigantic towers.
41:28Each with 20 floors, and between them they can hold 800 cars.
41:33But they need to be able to cope with up to 500 customers arriving a day to collect their new cars.
41:40So they've got to be able to get them in and out quickly.
41:44The whole system is controlled by computer, not surprisingly.
41:47And it can load a car from ground level anywhere else in the tower in just 40 seconds.
41:53Making it the fastest automated parking system anywhere in the world.
41:57From here, the cars are carried to the customers to commence their journeys beyond the factory gates.
42:04And every detail in this enormous factory has been perfected so that they can do that as quickly and efficiently as possible.
42:12Just as they have done before.
42:1546 million times and counting.
42:18I've seen the ultimate in precision engineering, executed with magnificent German efficiency.
42:28You get more out of a robot than out of a human.
42:30They don't make mistakes.
42:31And it's the enormity of the factory that allows it to produce such a phenomenal number of cars every day, every year.
42:39But this hasn't just been the story of the largest car factory on earth.
42:43It's the story of an engineering city dedicated to advancing global manufacturing.
42:49Making it bigger, better, faster.
42:52It's taken this factory 80 years to grow as big as it is today and as advanced.
42:59And whilst it's been amazing to see the technology that goes into making it as productive as it is,
43:06for me, wandering about the place, it's still been about the people.
43:09There are 63,000 of them involved in designing the cars, in programming the robots,
43:14in working alongside the robots to make those cars, as well as making sausages and playing in bands.
43:21So it's mind-bendingly big as it is, it's still somehow a very human place.
43:27It's about people making stuff for people.
43:51판ine, phil, let's say.
44:02Thank you, John.
44:09You're looking for watching.
44:12We're looking for starting to target something,
44:14wonderful, grex,
44:16we're looking for having more definitions of the Switch.