Encompassing cars as diverse as Skoda and Lamborghini , the Germany automotive giant is a family of 12 brands from 7 countries , operating 125 production plants in 31 countries worldwide , backed by 671,205 employees . It is also the largest manufacturing company by revenue in the world . No wonder VW is benefitting from digital factories and implementation of leading-edge technology . Take the Data : Lab for instance – VW ’ s own artificial intelligence and machine learning centre of excellence that makes day-to-day work easier and more efficient throughout the value chain . On the factory floor , VW is making digital leaps as part of a five-year strategy to implement smart manufacturing to create a more agile production base based on cloud computing , big data and machine learning . The ambitious aim is to increase productivity by as much as 30 %. From inspecting welds automatically with ultrasound to increasing collaboration between humans and robots in headlamp alignment , those efficiencies are already being implemented at 15 VW factories after being piloted in 2019 . The Group aims to invest € 33 billion by 2024 ( including the ordering of 2,200 new robots ) on converting plants in its bid to become the market leader for electric vehicles . VW is also using ‘ Computer Vision ’ to increase manufacturing efficiency , finding solutions that it can roll out across its plants . VW says this saves ‘ several minutes ’ for every vehicle on the production line – significant when you are making 10 million vehicles a year .

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