Our Trip to the Vitro Plant

Today we visited Vitroflex, a subsidiary of the Vitro corporation - one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of automotive glass in the world. A team of engineers introduced us to all of the different processes through which windshields are made. The amount of work and level of technology that are needed to produce windshields is simply incredible! Gigantic robots maneuver the glass - moving it, cutting it, washing it, bending it, painting it, inserting the plastic piece, removing all air, etc etc. The centrifuges that are used to bring the glass to perfect transparency look like time bombs. What can I say? I would not feel at ease working around so much machinery. I think I prefer an office job - at least I would not risk having a piece of equipment explode 5 meters away :)

We also saw first hand the result of what it means to rely to a very large extent on one buyer (in this case, GM). One of the main machineries in the plant has been idle for the past year, and it is operating at low energy consumption in order to avoid equipment damages that would be extremely costly to fix. I hope GM will overcome its difficulties, because it was rather heartbreaking to see such a gigantesque piece of equipment being unproductive for this long.

It was an interesting visit, we learned a lot about Vitroflex's operations, which are the core of their business. We also met a Wharton alumn and found out that the chairman of the Vitro corporation is also a Wharton grad. I felt proud :) :)