Ducati Factory Facts, courtesy of Claudia, my friendly Ducati Factory Tour Guide:
OK that's all I can think of for the moment. As I remember more, I will add it!
- There are 450 employees in the factory floor. About 100 of them are in the race dept
- There are a further 450 workers in the office
- All bikes are assembled in the Bologna factory. If you own a moden duc, it was made there
- When the Texas Pacific Group bought Ducati in 1995, they spent a shiteload on CNC milling machines and the like, and changed the assembly methodology to a Japanese style production line arguably on thing that saved the company
- Prior to this, approximately 12 people worked on assembling your bike. Now, just four do the job - one assembles the engine, two assemble the frame, engine etc, a final person commissions and tunes the bike - all take ownership of each process
- A good chance at least one woman helped build you bike - most likely the engine. More women are on the engine building line than men
- 40% of the engine block is machined away in the manufacture process
- You get pretty cool swag as a company uniform if you work at ducati.
- Chances are that you might ride one as well. If you do, you get a nice place to park - right out front in the exec car park!
- There are a number of production lines. All 2V are manufactured on the same line, and the other lines service the 4V and all the ST models
- On the factory tour, you don't get to see the race dept. Only get to peek in a little window where they develop engines
- The factory cafe is pretty cool. The coffee is respectable as well [thumbsup]
- No bikes are actually fully assembled in the factory. All fairings are bolted on at the shipping company, and the dealer does the mirrors, etc etc
- Probaby the coolest job is the one where you get to sit on bikes in the dynos and rev the shite out of bikes all day ... Actually, working in the race dept probably pips that!
OK that's all I can think of for the moment. As I remember more, I will add it!