MAJOR SHAKE-UP FOR ASSEMBLY LINE
The Taycan represents more than just a radical new model in Porsche’s future – it’s also a lifeline for its Zuffenhausen HQ, its Stuttgart production home since the 1950s.
Porsche has significantly remodelled the site, knocking down multiple buildings to create a new four-storey assembly hall and six others, including a body-in-white facility and paint shop.
Due to the scattered nature of the Taycan assembly buildings, a 900m-long conveyor is needed to move bodyshells from one area to the next.
To win approval from the Volkswagen board for this complex (and expensive) production plant, Porsche has put in place a unique ‘workers bond’ that has raised hundreds of millions of euros from the workforce to keep production at Zuffenhausen.
Production is initially planned at 20,000 to 25,000 units a year on a single shift, although further increases have been factored in. “We are capable of ramping up production substantially, if we need to,” says finance director Lutz Meschke. Adding a second shift could double output to 50,000 units a year.
The Taycan is currently in the pilot build phase with a target of around 40 man-hours per car for final assembly – a number comparable to the Macan.
Uniquely, the Taycan final assembly line will use automatic guided vehicles and a ‘variable production’ method that dispenses with tradition and adds elements of modular assembly. The number of assembly stations is also reduced to around 42, and workers at each will perform up to five operations.
As a result, production will be run uniquely around a flexible ‘tact’ time, unlike the standardised time for operations at most factories.