Today we spent the day at BMW - at BMW Welt (world) and at the BMW Factory - in Munich. We started with the factory tour where we were able to see stamping, body forming (welding), paint, marriage, final assembly and test.
The complex is huge, modern, and impressive. This plant fabricates the 3 series coupe, sedan and wagon, and the newly rebranded 4 series coupe. Production is running at just shy of 900 units per day, with a takt time of 58 seconds throughout the operation. 32000 employees work at this site, including 16000 in design and development.
Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take photos inside the factory (as always) but I came away being very impressed with the degree to which BMW had tried to address sustainability. Being located within an urban centre, in the middle of the city, meant challenges unlike those you could imagine Mercedes facing ( with their large land site, for example).
Virtually all process waste is recycled - scrap steel, aluminum from the press shop; scrap copper milled from the spot weld tips; even the paint excess/overspray (which was very minimal) is reclaimed for reuse. On average 80g of solid waste, per car, is non-recyclable. This is tiny - imagine the weight of a large chocolate bar as the leftover solid waste from a process that takes 40hrs and thousands and thousands of parts.
I have to praise BMW very highly for all their efforts to reduce their footprint - noise reduction on stamping equipment; all the reclamation of scrap/excess to minimize solid waste streams; green roof systems and solar panels on their buildings - all great examples of trying to be a leader in this area.
But most of all, leading by product design and innovation. Witness the i3 and i8 model cars:
The i8 - which sells for over €130,000 - is sold out until mid-2015. The i3 is purely electric, while the i8 is a hybrid, to get the power and range desired. Imagine paying a few Euros to charge your i3, maybe two or three times a week, instead of paying maybe a hundred Euros in that same period. That adds up quickly.
I don't think it will be too long before the infrastructure (charging stations) comes along to really support electric only cars in urban centres. It's only a matter of time and consumer demand.
After our factory tour, we had a tour of the museum, the following are some of my favourite pictures:
Tomorrow is Audi, then we transfer to Florence.
AMac
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