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Comment by perihelions

2 months ago

Is there a list of the world's largest factories, in a liberal sense of the word? The ones I'm aware of only consider individual structures [0], which excludes industrial plants that span multiple buildings, like this one.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_buildings

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perihelions

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kzrdude  2 months ago

One of the old classics in this genre of largest factories, BASF, https://www.basf.com/jp/en/who-we-are/organization/locations...

  • tame3902  2 months ago

    Volkswagen's main factory is also pretty large: "Spanning more than 6.5 km², the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg is now the largest automotive plant in Europe, employing more than 60,000 people."[0]

    [0]: https://www.volkswagen.de/de/marke-und-erlebnis/volkswagen-e...

    • d1sxeyes  2 months ago

      It becomes tricky because what does 'factory' mean? Especially once it's scaled to the size of a small town, you start to see town-like buildings popping up. There's some stuff which is arguably necessary for the factory itself, such as the train station and logistics facilities, a test track, and things which are necessary for the employees directly such as employee car parks and restaurants, but then there are other things like a visitor centres, shops, gardens, monuments, museums, a Ritz-Carlton hotel. Also, are power and water facilities part of the factory? Even if that means that we're counting a reservoir as 'part of the factory'[0]?

      How would you come up with an exhaustive list of which buildings contribute to the size of the factory, and which should be excluded?

      Otherwise, you're just looking at the land owned or leased by the company, which is obviously a valid measure somehow, but it's hard to say whether it would lead to fair comparisons. I don't have the answers, just throwing it out for debate.

      [0]: https://maps.app.goo.gl/wYLiYdHFioyR9Y8b6

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