Elon students visited and toured the SAIC Volkswagen production facility in Shanghai as a part of a business-focused study abroad program.
Students in the Love School of Business Center Abroad in Shanghai program visited the SAIC Volkswagen production plant in Shanghai. Established in 1984 as a joint venture between Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and German-based Volkswagen, the plant is a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that produces several different models of Volkswagen and Skoda cars.
Elon students were treated to an in-depth tour of the production and assembly lines, where human beings worked alongside robots to transform raw materials into finished automobiles.
“Touring the floor of the SAIC Volkswagen assembly line allowed me to visualize the efficiency of a well-operated supply chain,” said Josh Cadorette, a junior economics consulting major. “There were hundreds of workers and sophisticated machines working simultaneously, but the scene wasn’t hectic. Instead, there was harmony throughout each aspect of the car-making process.”
Junior international business major Jake Bauman said, “What I found most interesting about the SAIC Volkswagen plant was the effectiveness of their setup. They had four separate stations – pressing, painting, body shop, and assembly, each in its own massive buildings – that each specialize in their own particular part of the car. To see, up close and in person, how advanced the robotics were that they used to build the cars was absolutely incredible.”
The Love School of Business Center Abroad in Shanghai was created in 2015 to give Elon business students an opportunity to distinguish themselves from their peers by taking business courses and completing an internship while living in China.
This semester the students are taking Principles of Management, Principles of Marketing, Conversational Chinese, plus a variety of electives that count toward Elon’s Advanced Studies requirement. Courses are taught by East China Normal University faculty and Scott Buechler, the center’s faculty-in-residence. The students are also completing internships with various companies, including PwC, Atlas Distribution, Emil Coffee and Action Kids.
For more information about the Center Abroad in Shanghai, contact Bill Burress, associate director of study abroad, at bburress@elon.edu.