[E90Fleet]

Was on the facory tour today and will explain the process from the beginning

South african steel rolls are delivered to a BMW contractor here ( a german firm) that stamps all the metal body parts, everything, doors, sides roofs, bonnets ect ect

These parts are then delivered to the factory next door and go into the body shop

Parts arrive only 2 hours before being fitted



90 or so robots and countless workers weld and glue all the parts of the body together to form a complete bare mettal car

4 types of car are produced, sunroof with fin hole, sunroof without fin hole, no sunroof with fin hole, no sunroof and no fin hole

LHD and RHD bodies are exactly the same on the E90 (on the E46 they were different)



The car then makes its way to the paint shop next door to be dipped and anti corrosion coated, they are then painted

They paint the cars in batches here to save costs, but it is possible to paint one collor immediately after another without changing anything on the spray machines

The car then moves to a holding cell where about a days worth of cars are held in stock



The car then moves into the final assembly building to get fitted out

The doors are separated from the car and go on their own assembly line

First is the wiring harnesses, each is custome made for each car ( thats why you have a cutoff date for changing your order )



All mechanical parts arrive at the factory for a specific chassis number

Each engine, driveshaft, supspension , brakes, ect ect have the chassis number printed and barcoded on them for the car thay were made for, nohing is kept in stock

All the wiring is put in, speakers, carpeting , rar lights ect ect, then comes the dash

The dash is delivered from the factory just a few hours before being fitted. It comes completely assembled with everyting, radio, nav, spedo ect ect all fitted

In SA the dash is hand fitted, takes about 30 seconds, in germany it is fully automated




Windshields are then fitted by robot

And then the seats, which come from the supplier in a premade kit for each car ( Interrestingly its an American company that makes the seats, but the factory is in SA and they usae SA leather )

next comes the engine and drivetrain and then nose section with front lights

Next are the bumpers which arrive from a supplier already painted ( so they are not painted in the same factory as the car )




Next come the wheels

Saw every style of wheel and tire you can get from the factory ( non of the ones that your dealer must fit)
There were a couple rejected/damaged wheels lying in a corner, but I could get one )

Syle 162 is in full supply here, but these are made here and the shortage in europe could be due to a european supplier



Car is then given a infra red reciever and programmed though it while it is filled with some fuel , aircon gas and raddiator water ( programmed in probably 15 min or so )

Egines come from the factory in england or Austria already filled with oil, as do the gearboxes

Car is then driven off the line to the wheel alignment that is done by laser in less than 2 min ( new optical system being installed to do it in less than 1 min )

Car then is check on a dyno and the headlights aimed

It them goes into final Inspction which is mostly done by woman who wont let the car go with any problems ( cars go to a seperate are to have defects fixed, thoug threre was only 1 threr when I checked and it only had a loose trim panel )



Car is then driven over a short course with bumps and turns to check its ride and then goes to the shipping department

Then it goes to the customer



They finish about 260 cars a day here at the moment, 70% of which are exported to places like Japan, Asia, Australia and 325i for the USA

80% of parts are made here, mostly by German companies with factories here

98 Robots are used in total here ( Germany uses about 108 depending on Factory )



I saw lots of USA cars in many colors, but especially White and Artic, and there were a few red ( all red ones were for USA )

Also saw Japan, Australia and South Africa cars

There was a equal distribution of all current colors

Saw a Mystic blue test body

[Robin_NL]

Very interesting. You don't have any pictures with this story do you?

[Hornet]

Great write-up! It's always nice to hear reports of the building process of our cars.

[viperssd]

At the BMW factory in South Carolina, they confiscated all cameras and camera phones and returned them to you after the tour. Im sure the same procedure is used at all there factories.

[F32Fleet]

Hopefully an "authorized" video of the process will come out on the internet just as it did with the E46.

[thrill30]

Thanks for the write-up...it's great to hear how they do their magic in the factory.

It's interesting that the bumpers get painted from a different location to the one where the whole body gets painted.

[fredtoo]

Nice write up.

Are the doors painted while on the car, at the same time, or are they done off line?

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by Socom

Hopefully an "authorized" video of the process will come out on the internet just as it did with the E46.

Where is this located?

[ImUrGoDaK]

if you visit the link for the factory, there are video clips of the building process.

http://www.bmw-werk-dingolfing.de/di.../en/index.html

[E90Fleet]

I have been a bit too busy to post anymore on the factory, but please feel free to ask any questions and ill try to answer them

[E90Fleet]

A few official pics from the Leipzig factry in Germany

[visor]

Cool! Even their overalls are BMW blue with the propeller emblem.

[JVFan]

I wanna a pair of those E90...can you swing that big guy?

[Flash]

how many day does it takes to build 1 car. I have heard four days.

[Thavash]

Hey E90Fleet , I got an Invitation via mail for a factory tour.
I'm gonna book for the end of the month

[E90Fleet]

Originally Posted by Thavash

Hey E90Fleet , I got an Invitation via mail for a factory tour.
I'm gonna book for the end of the month

I see they sent invites over the OwnersCircle e-mail

Its really nice to go and see, so book it quick

[E90Fleet]

Originally Posted by Flash

how many day does it takes to build 1 car. I have heard four days.

From starting to put the metal parts together to having a completed car can take less than a day.
But they keep about 100 painted bodies in storage to make shure that if there is a problem on the painting side, the rest of the factory can keep on working. So a painted body may stay a day in storage before it is used

It just takes 9 hours ( germany 7,5 hours due to more robots ) to put everything into a painted body (Interior, engine, suspension )

The slowest part is the painting

[Flash]

does the people at the plant work 7 days a week and 24 hours a day or normal working hours?

[E90Fleet]

Originally Posted by Flash

does the people at the plant work 7 days a week and 24 hours a day or normal working hours?

No, they work 5 days a week and 2 shifts a day here

To work 24 hours they would have to go to 3 shifts, but as you would know the security and worker travel situation doesnt allow that here

[E90Fleet]

Also as I said the suppliers drop the parts off shortly before being used, so they would also have to work 24 hours if the factory did