#vw-werk

[kassellive]

Bis zu 1600 Doppelkupplungsgetriebe DL 382 für Audi sollen schon bald täglich die neu gestaltete Halle 6 des VW-Werkes Kassel in Baunatal verlassen. Die Produktion des Gehirns des Autos, der so genannten Mechatronik, hat jetzt an gleicher Stelle begonnen.(sok)

[kassellive]

Einheitlicher Tarifvertrag für VW-Logistiker

Auf einen bundesweit einheitlichen Tarifvertrag haben sich die Geschäftsführung der Originalteile Logistik GmbH (OTLG) von VW und der Vorstand der IG Metall aktuell in Baunatal geeinigt. Das geht aus einer Pressemitteilung der OTLG hervor. Damit werden die Arbeitsbedingungen für insgesamt 2700 Beschäftigte der Gesellschaft an allen deutschen Standorten geregelt. Der Sitz der OTLG ist im VW-Werk Kassel in Baunatal. (sok)

[kassellive]

Zufahrt zum VW-Werk nachts gesperrt

Zu Behinderungen für Autofahrer kann es in den Nächten zu Mittwoch und Donnerstag im Bereich des  VW-Werkes Kassel in Baunatal kommen. Das teilt die  Landesbehörde Hessen-Mobil soeben mit. Auf dem Abschnitt der Auf- und Abfahrten der Landesstraße 3219 bei Altenbauna in Richtung VW und von dort kommend in Richtung Oberzwehren/Mattenberg werden neue Leitplanken installiert. Dazu werden die Rampen jeweils in der Zeit zwischen 23 Uhr und 5 Uhr voll gesperrt. (sok)

[kassellive]

VW-Werk: Weitere 200 Leiharbeiter bekommen feste Stelle

Das VW-Werk Kassel in Baunatal übernimmt weitere 200 Leiharbeiter auf feste Stellen. Das teilt Betriebsratvorsitzender Carsten Bätzold soeben mit. Damit reagiert der Konzern auf die gute Auftragslage im zweitgrößten deutschen VW-Werk. Laut Bätzold werden alle Leiharbeiter übernommen, die von März bis Mai 2014 eine Einsatzdauer von 36 Monaten erreichen. (sok)

[kassellive]

VW-Werk: Feste Jobs für 117 Leiharbeiter

117 Leiharbeiter bekommen heute im  VW-Werk Kassel in Baunatal einen festen Vertrag. Für die Mitarbeiter endet damit eine Zeit der Ungewissheit. Schließlich mussten sie bislang mit befristeten Verträgen über die Runden kommen. Die Mitarbeiter werden jetzt gleich am Standort Baunatal vom Werkmanagement besonders begrüßt. (sok)

[kassellive]

VW-Werk in Baunatal übernimmt 117 Leiharbeiter

Das VW-Werk Kassel in Baunatal übernimmt bis Februar 117 Leiharbeiter auf feste Verträge. Das berichtet Betriebsratschef Carsten Bätzold soeben. Grund für die Entscheidung: Das VW-Werk ist richtig gut ausgelastet. (sok)

[kassellive]

Baustelle: Behinderungen am VW-Werk

Zu Behinderungen für Autofahrer kann es derzeit auf den Ausfahrten der Anschlussstelle "Baunatal-Nord" der A 49  kommen. Dort wird eine Notausfahrt der Autobahnpolizei Baunatal gebaut. Der Verkehr wird zwischen 9 und 13 Uhr einspurig an der Baustelle vorbei geleitet. Die Arbeiten dauern bis zum 18. Oktober. (sok)

[aliveandtravelling]

day 7: volkswagen, volkswagen and more volkswagen

Today, en-route to Berlin, we stopped by Wolfsburg, which is an industrial city where the headquarters of one of Germany's most famous companies is based. I'm talking, of course, about Volkswagen. There's a giant museum on the factory site, including a glass-walled factory where you can see a car starting from a metal shell to a finished product driving off the production line in just 2 hours.

Volkswagen is more than just VW cars. They also own Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Skoda and Seat, and they also provide parts for a number of other manufacturers. Chances are, something in your car came out of this factory.

VW seems to be all about ultra-modern technology, and the Autostradt museum showcases their ideas of what they expect the world to be like in the near-future utilising some of their inventions. The first, being the carpark. As you enter the carpark, you leave your car on a ramp at the front door, and take a ticket. You hang half the ticket on your rear-view mirror, and stand back as a robot comes to collect your car, and places it on a shelf in one of the two 40m towers located on-site. When you want to get your car back, just scan your ticket, and the robot fetches your car and places it right in front of you in less than 2 mins. I like gadgets and gizmos, so of course, I was very impressed by this. They also explained that it's not out-of-the-question expensive to build something like that, where the costs you would spend on the extra mechanical machinery, you would save on repairing accidental damage to your walls and floors caused by "carpark dings".

click here to see a video of the auto-carpark in action.

Inside the Autostradt, it seemed kind of like the Powerhouse Museum, but all with car-themed or environmental-themed exhibits. They also had facilities for learner drivers to do a driving test, and for other drivers to test a 4x4 on their test-track, and to try stunt-driving in a Golf R or Scirrocco. There was also, of course, the showcase of cars from all the brands, which you could feel free to look inside and sit in any of them, and purchase them straight from the factory if you wanted to cut out the dealer.

Something that seemed like a really good idea was the factory ordered car sales. People could make an appointment to come in and customise any of the VW branded cars, select whatever options they wanted, and then sit back and watch as their car is assembled on the spot. Roughly 3 hrs later, they drive it out the door. This was a really popular option, where we saw a car leaving the showroom floor at least every 5 mins, and pretty much every car on the roads in this town was a VW, Skoda or Audi - including our rental car, for that matter.

Time just flew by today. We arrived at VW-Werk at around 9am, and didn't leave till about 3pm, as there was just so much to see that day - and we didn't even get to see every exhibit. It was just too much.

With 260km to Berlin still left to travel, we wanted to beat peak-hour traffic, so we ventured back to the Autobahns for another death-wish. After yesterday, I was thinking and thinking what the best way to approach this was, and I decided that the reason it was so scary was because it was intimidating to be overtaken by cars at such high-speed, so if you can't beat them, join them! Today's average speed on the Autobahn was 160km/h. This actually felt a lot safer. People weren't overtaking me as fast, and I was actually overtaking a few other people myself. I felt in control of the car at all times, and everything was going well, except our fuel economy jumped up from 3.5L/100km to 5.6L/100km - otherwise, it was much nicer, and we were in Berlin in less than 2hrs.

Tonight, we had a very lovely dinner at a local German restaurant in the neighbourhood where the hotel is. Very cheap food (for Aussie standards) and extremely cheap beer! The food was so rich that I had to go for a walk around the block a few times after dinner to feel a bit better.

I think I'll sleep well tonight. :)

Tomorrow, exploring Berlin properly.