|
|
. 
. .
..
. . . . .
Related Topics: Full Speech: "Factory of the Future" 6th Automotive News Europe Congress Gothenburg - 24 June 2002
The new MINI is being manufactured on one of the world's most modern and advanced production systems at the BMW Group plant at Oxford - the result of a £230 million investment programme at the factory.
BMW's new UK engine production plant at Hams Hall, near Birmingham, was formally opened at a ceremony which brought good news for the British car industry. BMW Group has invested £400 million in the factory, which will build a new generation of four-cylinder gasoline engines for delivery to its car assembly plants in Germany, South Africa and the US.
© 1998 - 2003 Copyright & |
BMW : Factory of the Future"
In the '20s came the industrial breakthrough, the assembly line production à la Henry Ford. Thousands of cars came off the lines every day, at that time in the same colour and with the same fittings and motorisation. Much has changed since then, in particular the demands of customers. Today the vehicle always has to be manufactured to an individual customer order, like a made-to-measure suit. An example from the important USA market: 10 years ago less than 10 percent of BMW customers ordered an individually tailor-made vehicle, today the figure is above 30 percent. The trend is clear and BMW Group has already paved the way. The BMW Group has been manufacturing in accordance with the so-called built-to-order principle for decades. The complexity this engenders can be seen in the following statistic: for the BMW 7 series alone 1017 different vehicle combinations are arithmetically possible. Conversion and networking capability - a must for the success of tomorrow "Conversion and networking capability, that is "breathing" structures, are the basic prerequisites for the successful vehicle production of tomorrow. If the framework conditions should change, then the company must be able to adapt even more quickly in the future, in order to exist successfully in the global automobile market", said Dr. Norbert Reithofer, Member of the Board of BMW AG, responsible for Production, at an Congress of Experts in Gothenburg. The BMW Group global production network stands out today due to its great flexibility. The output of the plants is geared to market demand. Each location is basically designed to be able to build several models. Exceptions: the Oxford plant for the MINI and from 2003 Rolls-Royce manufacturing in England. This shows a further fundamental benefit of the network. Extensive know-how is available in the BMW Group network, ranging from manual manufacturing in Goodwood where there are only two robots in total, to the highly automated and flexible production in Oxford, and is constantly being refined and developed. New knowledge, for example that arising from the landmark architectural structure of the BMW Group plant in Leipzig, flows directly into the network and can be used at all sites. "The BMW Group learnt early on to go for networks, in order not only to optimise its own resources, but to multiply them", emphasises Reithofer. The BMW Group will invest about 16 billions Euro in the next five years into the production network. Flexibility in the product and in the organisation However the flexibility demanded is not only aimed at the product, but concerns above all the organisation and its procedures. For example, the desire to be able to make changes after the vehicle has been ordered without the promised delivery date being affected is very great. This can be seen at BMW in the figure 40,000, because that is currently the number of changes made by customers after the vehicle has been ordered that are processed and implemented each month in the company. These altered framework conditions demand production and working procedures which the BMW Group meets with landmark projects, such as the so-called customer-oriented sales and production process (KOVP). This succeeded, for example, in shortening the process throughput times drastically from around 30 days to 12 days for the current BMW 7 Series, a quantum leap in the automobile world. 10 days is even being advised for future models. Furthermore the BMW Group is setting benchmarks in flexibility for change for customers. Today, with the BMW 7 Series it is already possible to make changes in colour, fittings and motorisation six working days before the start of assembly, without affecting the delivery date. This kind of flexibility was scarcely conceivable ten years ago. See: Full Speech: "Factory of the Future" 6th Automotive News Europe Congress Gothenburg - 24 June 2002
|
.
|
