How long does it take to build a car?
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MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Sep 2011
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From: East Texas
2004 Volvo XC70; 2012 GLK 350 4matic
How long does it take to build a car?
Does anyone know how long the actual building time takes? From the day when your build order gets to the top of the list and your shiny new GLK rools off the assembly line and heads for the marshalling yard awaiting shipment?
Example: My most recent guesstimate was "the second week in Ocotber." Assuming the actual building started sometime between the 9th and 15th of October, how long does it take to get to the end of the assembly line? Hours? Days? Weeks?
Wayne
Curious in Texas.
Example: My most recent guesstimate was "the second week in Ocotber." Assuming the actual building started sometime between the 9th and 15th of October, how long does it take to get to the end of the assembly line? Hours? Days? Weeks?
Wayne
Curious in Texas.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Sep 2011
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From: East Texas
2004 Volvo XC70; 2012 GLK 350 4matic
I found a couple data points. Probably not even relevant.
Corvette. 48 hours on 10 hour shifts. Assembly time excluding component prep time.
Modern assembly lines spit out between 50 & 100 vehicles per hour. That's a lot of rice burners, Paw-Paw.
Corvette. 48 hours on 10 hour shifts. Assembly time excluding component prep time.
Modern assembly lines spit out between 50 & 100 vehicles per hour. That's a lot of rice burners, Paw-Paw.
Last edited by venchka; Oct 18, 2011 at 08:48 AM.
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2010
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From: Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
C250,GLK350
The VIN gets assigned a day or two before the car actually rolls through the system. It can take a week or up to three or four for it to get from assembly (US bound GLKs come out of the Bremen plant) to the port in Germany. I had a customers E Bluetec get delay three weeks before it shipped.
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Sep 2011
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From: East Texas
2004 Volvo XC70; 2012 GLK 350 4matic
Thanks for the real world facts.
So,
If the "build in the second week of October" was accurate then our GLK is someshere between the assembly line and the ship. Bremen is not very far from the port.
Wayne
Our GLK exists! Thinking good weather thoughts!
So,
If the "build in the second week of October" was accurate then our GLK is someshere between the assembly line and the ship. Bremen is not very far from the port.
Wayne
Our GLK exists! Thinking good weather thoughts!
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 42
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From: USA
GLK350
My wife and I visited the MB factory in Sindlefingen, Germany earlier this year in hopes of seeing GLKs being assembled on the line (since this is where you pick up a GLK if you take advantage of the European Delivery Program). Turns out the GLK is actually built in Bremen (as venchka noted) so we did not see GLKs on the line but we did see them building C-class and E-class sedans. And as a point of reference, they were building just over 650 C-class sedans in two shifts totaling 18 hours that day. I was shocked...that's a lot more cars than I expected and in just the short time we were on the factory tour cars had gone from a frame being welded to almost ready to roll off the line.
The MB factory was extremely well organized, clean and state-of-the-art (as one would expect!). Most of the assembly work was done by robots up until the chassis and engine ‘marry’ with the body. From there much of the work is done by hand until the vehicle (after traveling many miles throughout the line by various conveyors) is driven out of the factory and into a testing/prep area where protective materials are added before loading onto a truck or train.
So in the end it likely takes only a few hours for a GLK to go from order to actual vehicle, though of course all the components have to be on hand first (including body parts that were painted in advance).
The MB factory was extremely well organized, clean and state-of-the-art (as one would expect!). Most of the assembly work was done by robots up until the chassis and engine ‘marry’ with the body. From there much of the work is done by hand until the vehicle (after traveling many miles throughout the line by various conveyors) is driven out of the factory and into a testing/prep area where protective materials are added before loading onto a truck or train.
So in the end it likely takes only a few hours for a GLK to go from order to actual vehicle, though of course all the components have to be on hand first (including body parts that were painted in advance).
Last edited by CJM Online; Oct 18, 2011 at 04:51 AM.
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MBWorld Fanatic!
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From: East Texas
2004 Volvo XC70; 2012 GLK 350 4matic
CJM,
That would be an amazing experience. I had always assumed that the 2-4 weeks between no more changes and final assembly is used to gather all of the sub-assemblies. 650 C-Class sedans a day blows my mind. That is almost 2 a minute. Boggles the mind.
Wayne
That would be an amazing experience. I had always assumed that the 2-4 weeks between no more changes and final assembly is used to gather all of the sub-assemblies. 650 C-Class sedans a day blows my mind. That is almost 2 a minute. Boggles the mind.
Wayne
Last edited by venchka; Oct 18, 2011 at 03:29 PM.
