Visiting the Factory - Octavia 2 assembly line

[joemaster]

Visiting Skoda factory at Mlada Boleslav

Since the first time I saw it, (1996) I wanted to own an Octavia. It took almost ten years to make my dream come true, and ordered one from the second generation.

I also wanted to see the assembly line, where my car and other Octavias were manufactured (except Scout and 4x4 models). When I heard that in these days at Mlada Boleslav (CzechRepublic), where the base plant resides, visitors of the SkodaMuseum can have access to the assembly line, what’s more, the Octavia 2 assembly line, I decided to go and see…

We spent 3 days in Prague, but it’s not enough, if you want to see all the beauties of this city! I planned to spend a few hours visiting to Mlada Boleslav being in 60 km (38 miles) distance to the capital of CzechRepublic. Not enough time!

Count a whole day to spend there!

I arranged the factory visit by e-mail with SkodaMuseum, I also asked for en English guide. Entry fee to the museum and the factory visit was CZK170 (about GBP 6) including the cost of an English guide! English guide means, that a beautiful, young Czech girl working for SkodaMuseum will spend about 3 hours with You and will answer to most of Your questions. Even technical questions!

The building of the Museum was an assembly hall till’ 1964, when a new plant was built for a new model, Skoda 1000MB, less than 1 km away from this site.

Museum visit starts with seeing 2 small movies (about 20 minutes together). The first one is introducing us Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement, two men who established a bicycle factory in 1895.

The second movie shows moments from today’s car making processes.

Our English guide took us all around the exhibition halls. She introduced almost all the displayed cars to us. I hardly had time to take photographs! I suggest everyone who wants to read the signs and stories related to the vehicles to take another round in the exhibition halls without a guide.

This story is about the assembly process of the Octavia 2, so I’ll skip the details of the cars on display, but You can see 50-60-70-80 years old cars with names of “Superb”, “Felicia”, “Favorit”, “Octavia”…

After the tour in the Museum, our guide asked me to go to my car and take our way toward the current factory site.

It was easy to pass the security check, when the guard saw our guide beside me. The factory site is huge, we were driving several hundred meters form one hall to another.

Taking photographs is strictly prohibited. I tried to ask our guide for about three times to let me take a photo of my car with trains in the background fully loaded with brand new Skodas, or the engine workshop or the Octavia 2 assembly hall in the background, but her heart was cold and refused my request.

While I was driving, our guide was talking about the thermal power station that supplies even the town of Mlada Boleslav, the Foundry, where steel and aluminum parts are made (engine block, gearbox housing, trailing arms).

We passed the Fabia assembly hall and parked outside another large hall that was the engine and gearbox workshop. I saw long trains loaded with new Skodas.

After entering the workshop we arrived to “Quality corner”. It was the starting point of our tour. All the gearboxes are exposed to noise test, switch test and leak test. These units partially exported because they are built into other VW group cars too.

The engine assembly line switches engine types in every 2 hour. One orange coloured robot arm staves the engine ID into the engine block, the other gives the engines the initial oil fill. We also saw a small chamber, where optical engine test is made. A small camera checks that the engine has all the parts installed.

35% of the engine building process is automated. 5% of small engines (1.2, 1.4, 1.6 litre) and 10% of large engines (2.0 litre) exposed to “Hot test”. These engines are connected to a battery, cooling system, fuel system and ECU (Engine Controller Unit), started and ran for 5 minutes.

Large displays show the units (engine/gearbox) expected to produce by that time in that shift and the number of units already made. They were 2 units ahead of plan and that shift started 2 hours before.

This was about a 15 minutes long tour. After we returned to my car, we headed for the Octavia 2 assembly hall; I was so keen on seeing for years then.

It is the youngest building of all assembly halls. It was build directly for the first Octavia in 1996. At that time 350 cars were made per day, now it’s upgraded to make possible to manufacture more than 900 cars per day!

Production of an Octavia 2 takes about 24-26 hours. 10-11 hours for laser and spot welding the chassis parts together. 11 hours for applying and drying 5-6 coats of paint. After these processes the empty chassis (without doors) arrives to the assembly hall where it becomes a brand new car in 4 hours during a 1 km long journey.

The assembly line has “U” shape. The empty, but fully painted chassis arrives to the end of one stalk of this “U” shape from 5-6 meters height. The chassis only has the bonnet and the trunk lid installed, doors are assembled in another workshop, they’re united with the proper car later.

The chassis is lowered on to the assembly line. All the vulnerable parts of chassis is covered with protective plastic foils to avoid injuries while the car is built. At this early time it’s already known, what type and equipment level it will be.

First the door seals are installed, then the safety belts. Roof rails come, if they are on the order list (they are not default on wagon chassis at every market). Finally the trunk lid locking mechanism is installed and set up to close properly. The body arrives to the end of the stalk of “U” shape.

Now it’s moved to a platform. This platform transfers the would-be car to the beginning of the other stalk of “U” shape assembly line. Visitors use stairs to pass this platform underneath, employees are free to walk while the platform is not in transfer mode, but when it is, barriers are lowered and warning lights are flashing.

Visitors are allowed to go only few meters beyond these barriers, then they must climb some stairs to reach a 4-5 meters (12-15 feet) high platform (look-out tower) built specially for them. We were not allowed to walk beside the assembly line or go in further into the hall than this platform.

The next step is installing the whole dashboard. Dashboard is assembled in another workshop by specialists. They’re not Skoda employees, but the company that builds dashboards.

A robot arm brings the completed dashboard and pushes it into the car through the left front door opening! Centre console with climate controls, radio head unit, glove compartment, switches, instruments, heating/air system are all in one unit! Only the steering wheel is missing!

4 or 5 workers fastening the dashboard into the chassis. The dashboard unit is also equipped with the complete wiring loom of the car! The loom is divided into smaller looms running toward the rear part of the chassis on both sides on the floor, the roof and the engine compartment. The wires are fixed to their prepared places.

After this stage another workers do their job in the engine compartment. Installing the brake fluid reservoir, windscreen washer fluid tank and other accessories, like climate system hoses.

Meanwhile the chassis keeps on moving! The floor is moving continuously with the chassis and the workers on it.

Workers are forming brigades. While the chassis moves through their territory, they have to finish all their jobs.

One brigade is working on three cars simultaneously. Workers are often changed for a special task in the brigade to avoid being the job too boring.

Average age of the workers is 27 years!

Another brigade installs the roof lining, the inner plastic cover of the trunk lid and all the glasses (including the windscreen).

From our platform we cannot see the installation of the fuel tank, running gear, engine, the whole interior (seats, carpets, doors) or programming of the electronic systems. How lucky, that the second short movie at the Museum shows some moments of these procedures.

The next thing we can see by our eyes is checking the lights, starting the new car for the first time and rolling off the assembly line on the stalk of the “U” shape right before the point empty bodies arrive to.

Our guide said that a new car is finished in every two minutes. She was right!

Large display shows the planned production of the actual shift, the number of cars already made and the plan of a 24-hour workday (3 shifts, starting at 10 o’clock pm).

All the assembly halls (Fabia, Octavia) have their own test course and rain chamber, where the water-proofing of the car is tested. All of the cars are taken to a test route of at least 5 km-s (3 miles).

All the assembling brigades have part containing boxes with VW marks. All the boxes have bar code on a label. When the stock of one part is running out, one of the workers shows the bar code label to a reader and the supply must be there in maximum 20 minutes.

Logistics department has 2 weeks to fit in one customer’s order into the production plan and ensure that all the parts needed to make that particular car will be in the boxes of the brigades when the properly coloured chassis gets there.

Driving out of the factory site our guide showed the Press workshop where the body elements are made out of 4 km (2.5 miles) long steel rolls bought from Germany and Austria. We also saw the pressing tools workshop, here the tools shaping the chassis elements into the steel sheets are produced. They also manufacture shapes for the Foundry.

Press workshop is the only where production is 24 hours per day and 7 day per week. It produces 15000 parts per day and 2 days ahead of production. The operation of the whole plant depends mainly on the Press workshop.

When all final checks passed, new cars driven to a 4000 place car park. 70% of them exported. 4000 car is 2-day capacity of the plant.

Driving our guide back to the Museum she showed us the Skoda offices, the quarters of the workers, and the management HQ. Design center is on the other side of town.

When we dropped our guide at the Museum, we went back to the gate of the factory, parked my car to have the gate with Skoda logo in the background and took a photograph.

I could spend all my day beside the assembly line, I’m really happy I saw the birthplace of my Octavia!

[skorob2007]

Excellent and informative write-up:thumbup:

Enjoy your new Octavia:)

[sms]

this is something i would like to do, nice write up there. so do you reckon then you could make any skoda full spec easily seems the wires are all in place? just thinking about puddle lights now

[joemaster]

No, because they use differently prepared looms for different equipment levels.That's why, if You buy an Ambiente level car without Xenon lights and You intend to install washer fluid warning later, You also have to install the wires of the level sender and lead them to the instrument cluster, then install them into the connector of the cluster. Originally these wires are missing from the loom!Another example: if You buy an Ambiente level car with rear seat heating, You must also order rear power windows because the don't use that many kind of looms (manufacturing costs...). They have a few loom configurations but not all the variations of the option list.

[sms]

ah right, just wondering how far they went after what you posted above. cheers for that!!

[andy2407]

Excellent write up - takes me back to September last year when we visited as part of the Briskoda Prague trip.

What amazed me most was that there was a real mix of colours, specs and hatch/estate models on the production line at any one time - I somehow expected they would have been produced in batches.

[Taxi 219]

Excellent write up

Would like to see all this myself too.

[Jonny5ive]

Excellent write up - takes me back to September last year when we visited as part of the Briskoda Prague trip.

What amazed me most was that there was a real mix of colours, specs and hatch/estate models on the production line at any one time - I somehow expected they would have been produced in batches.

:iagree: It was fascinating to watch

[reptil]

Excellent story :-)

[Gillywibble]

I could spend all my day beside the assembly line, I’m really happy I saw the birthplace of my Octavia!

Cracking write up and I agree, I was fascinated by it

[_ZS_]

I can't see any pictures?

[joemaster]

I can't see any pictures?

I was not allowed taking photographs at factory site.I only have a photo of my Octavia 2 with Skoda Gate B8 in background.Picture was made from the outside...

[mdk1]

Glad you enjoyed your trip

Have been twice now, always very interesting.

[joemaster]

Hi Skoda fans!

I've managed to open my own Octavia site, where You can read the whole story (extended with the museum part) and other interesting information!

Visiting Skoda Museum and Octavia2 assembly hall in Mlada Boleslav, home of the Skoda in the Czech Republic

[Organist]

A very informative and interesting read. Thank you very much!

[robertb]

Hi Skoda fans!

I've managed to open my own Octavia site, where You can read the whole story (extended with the museum part) and other interesting information!

Visiting Skoda Museum and Octavia2 assembly hall in Mlada Boleslav, home of the Skoda in the Czech Republic

Recommend a visit to the web site.

Very interesting post - thanks.

[GriffoVRS]

A good read!

I visited the Jaguar/Land Rover plant at Halewood (a bit nearer to home) and this was a similar experience.

What was interesting was that they mixed X-Types and Freelanders on the same assembly line with all of the bits coming together at the right time.