January 10th- Blog Entry

On January 10th The Manhattan College class of Global 414 had the opportunity to visit one of Europe's most popular car manufacturers named "PSA Peugeot Citroën” which has consumers in 160 countries and 16 productions sites. The PSA assembly factory we visited creates three different models of cars, two of the three cars assembled are electric. Once we arrived at the assembly factory we were given safety measures such as yellow vest which reminded us of the riots and protective glasses. At the beginning of the tour, we were taken to the first out of three buildings which is the beginning of the assembly line. The tour guide demonstrated the vehicles from raw metal to finishing product. First, we visited the molding area, laser cutting area and learned that the scraps of metals used to produce the car are sent back to the metal producers once finished in order to decrease their carbon footprint and eliminate waste. The company has advanced due to the increase in technology for in the 1980’s it took 6-8 hours to change a matrix in today’s day it takes up to 15 min. The result of increasing the technology has decreased jobs in the manufacturing business due to the fact 89% of the factory is automatic. The technology has caused a severe decrease in employees for in the 1960’s it would take 22,000-27,000 people to create 2,000 cars, currently, only 4,000 employees divided into 3 teams can create 1,000 a day within the constant 24 hrs it is open.

The company site we visited also creates pieces for cars who are being created in other assembly sights which one of them could be found near the left bank of the French river. In order to produce 8 cars 350 metal pieces are needed and a common subject is keeping the mold for 10 years ongoing after the creation of the model for repairs. The factory has an electronic board above the mold machines which calculate the number of products demanded vs the ones that have been created throughout the day. In order to create cars, they use robots with laser beams to create the details. Later on, they retrieve one of the automobiles that where being created in the robotic cycle to verify everything is okay in order to have quality control. Another quality control the company does is a test drive the car 1 million km in different environments before releasing them. They are currently creating two electric automobiles to compete with Tesla. The first building we visited assembles 2 cars the second building is focused on producing 1 car which is a PRE model, therefore, they only create 50 a day with a new generation of robots. They are compacting the production area creating more space for other facilities such as storage and a small school for their factory workers.

After visiting the PSA manufacturing sight we had the opportunity to visit Versailles which was a stunning sight. Thankfully the Versailles Palace did not have many visitors, therefore, we were able to walk the corridors calmly and were able to see a little bit of everything. Due to the cold weather many of the students left early yet I had the opportunity to stay and go around Marie Antoinette’s small village which included a variety of animals such as chickens, goats, lambs, fish, and a cute water mill definitely a must see when visiting the Versailles Palace.