In November, you can experience the world’s best car factories, from the inside

 

See the world’s best car plant, in 17 days

To increase awareness for the complexities of the automobile business, and with the support of some of the world’s largest (and smallest) automakers, Dailykanban founders Ed Niedermeyer and Bertel Schmitt organize a unique round-the-world tour of the world’s best car plants. This is not your father’s factory tour. It gets you into car factories usually closed to outsiders. You will talk to top executives. You will even witness how executives are trained to build cars. You will come home with a solid understanding for what it takes to successfully build, and run a car factory.

Dubbed “MagicalMysteryPlantTour,” the trip takes opinion leaders from the cradle of the mass-produced automobile, Ford Dearborn, to the epitome of lean production, Toyota, where we will meet and chat with Mitsuru Kawaii, a Toyota board member, and the last surviving disciple of the father of the Toyota production system, Taichi Ohno .

From Tokyo, the trip goes to Beijing, and from there to Zhangjiakou, where Geely has built a brand-new factory with the help of Volvo engineers. Here, plant managers will tell us how much it costs, and how long it takes to build a medium-sized car factory in China.

From China, we go to the south of India, to Chennai, the former Madras. Here, we will see true automotive disruption at Renault-Nissan’s Kwid factory. We will learn, from Gerard Detourbet himself, how to solve the automotive world’s toughest riddle: How to make a $4,000 car, and don’t go bankrupt trying.

We leave a hot Chennai for the cooler climes of Germany in November. We will see most likely the world fanciest car plant, Volkswagen’s “Transparent Factory.” Originally built for the Phaeton, it now handles the low volume final assembly of the all-electric Volkswagen e-Golf.

Then, onto the UK. In Coventry, we see Geely’s LEVC plant .This used to be the London Taxi plant. London Taxi was bought by Geely and transformed into an electric light commercial vehicle brand.

Finally, the crowing event: After a stay in a picturesque Shakespeare Country Inn, we will go to Gaydon for a visit of Aston Martin. In what used to be a RAF Vulcan bomber base, Aston Martin builds some of the world’s priciest cars. All by hand, and usually made-to-order.

Like so many things these days, the idea for the MagicalMysteryPlantTour was born on Twitter. Within a few hours, the tour, limited to 15 people, was already oversubscribed. The tour, which will span a little bit over two weeks in November 2018, will be available for a firm booking in a few days, .For details, see here.

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