[Lynchmob6]

Thought I would share some of my impressions on the factory tour we took in Munich on Monday (6 JUL) when I was picking my car up at the BMW Welt.

You can take this same tour virtually from your computer here:
http://www.bmw-werk-muenchen.de/lowb.../en/index.html

Unfortunately no cameras were allowed in the factory, but from the movies in the link above, you pretty much see everything that we saw.

Anyway the tour in-person was very good. We started at the Welt and walked accross the street to the Factory. The tour guide told us that they make all 3-Series models at this plant, along with many different engines. It was cool to see the assembly lines where my car was produced! They build about 800 cars and about 1,200 engines here per-day...that works out to about 200,000 vehicles and around 300,000 engines each year...and they have not slowed down with the current economy. There are about 10,000 associates, on two shifts...6:00 to 15:00 and 15:00 to 24:00. They do not work on the weekend and take two weeks off every August when the factory shuts down between model years.

What was even more impressive is that fact that 51 hours is the longest any vehicle is in the factory...and that is with a 15-hour break in production, only if needed. She told us that from start to finish, the only time a car is there more than three days is if there is a weekend in between. My car was built the last week of June and was stored in the Welt basement until we picked it up the first week of July.

The tour started in the steel press shop. Saw the huge rolls of steel being pressed into doors, hoods and you name it. Next we went to the body shop where robots weld the steel together. She told us that the factory is about 96% automated. In one area there were 12 robots that made 90 welds in less that 60 seconds! A first, she told us, for the auto industry.

Next we went to the paint shop. Very impressive to see how this works. What really amazed me is that the robots clean themselves after each car, and they can switch colors between cars...they were painting silver when we arrived and switched to white after just a few cars. She told us that sometimes some colors will only have two cars in a single day, so they have to be flexible.

Next we saw the assembly areas where everything from seats to wiring harnesses were added. Truly a just-in-time orgranization. There are bar-codes taped to the car and employees scan these with readers. This tells them which options/dash/buttons/wires go in each car, according to the customer's order. They are very into pleasing the customer, and from what I saw, they take extra care to really do a good job. She told us that the workers are organized into small teams, and they organize themselves in their work areas to determine who will be doing what during each shift. That way no one gets bored and gets to shift jobs all the time. They test all options after they are installed.

It was great to see the leather seats being sewn and windshields going on...just awesome to see how everything goes together so fluidly. Our last stop was the final testing area. The last thing they do is add fluids before this stop. Here they have the cars on dyno's and run them up as high as 150kph (about 100mph). They check transmission shifting and braking. The cars are then sent outside, either to waiting trucks for transport to European nations, or to the train yard nearby...you should see the number of cars sitting on trains waiting to move...huge numbers all wrapped in plastic.

So overall it was an awesome experience. I feel very lucky to have seen the Museum, the Welt, the Factory and picked my car up here...truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

[mkPOTO]

awesome...that virtual tour is pretty sweet

[Bimmerdriver17]

Nice, I want to go!