Kulturprodukt

Visiting the LEGO Factory

Over the last four or five years I’ve been to several different LEGO office buildings, jam packed with cool NDA-covered work-related stuff. But until yesterday, I had never seen where the actual plastic magic takes places. I have finally had the pleasure of visiting the LEGO factory in Billund.

Fun facts from the tour:

• LEGO in Billund produce 2.400.000 LEGO elements per hour
• Production lines run 24 hours a day, 360 days per year
• Chain elements used for e.g. Bionicle are molded in ONE piece
• It takes one employee to manage around 50 molding machines
• The robots that pick up the filled boxes of LEGO elements are quite patient with visitors
• Said robots wear signs saying “This machine doesn’t have a brain – Use your own!”
• 99% of the plastic that goes into the factory ends up as LEGO
• The remaining 1% is sold to a concrete factory that uses the scrap plastic as furnace fuel
• LEGO is the world’s largest manufacturer of tires (if you look at the # of tires)

The most cool thing about it all though, was the warehouse. Think Raiders of the Lost Ark (the closing scene where the Ark is archived in the gigantic warehouse filled with wooden crates) meets The Matrix – then you have an idea of the proportions of cool that we’re talking. A 100% automated 22 meters high warehouse that was operated by conveyor belts and 22 meter tall robots operating at dizzying speed and precision.

Just imagine sitting in that warehouse with endless LEGO bricks to choose from, and six to ten 22 meter tall robots to help you find what you need…

(No photo opportunities however)