Friday, July 10, 1992 — North Shore News - 29

BMW surprises with first American plant

“WE ARE the first manufacturer of luxury performance
cars to establish our own production plant in the U.S.A.
This will substantially strengthen our ties with this impor-
tant market, making us even better prepared in future for
the wishes and demands of U.S. customers.’’ No, this isn’t
another announcement by a Japanese automotive execu-
tive. It’s part of the speech delivered by Eberhard von
Keuheim, chairman of the board of BMW AG, on June 23

in a live telecast from Munich.

After months of speculation,
BMW has finally made an official
announcement that they will build
a new manufacturing facility in
the United States, near the Green-
ville-Spartanburg area in South
Carolina — the first U.S. plant
for BMW! With the initial in-
vestment of $250 to $300 million
(US), the plant will eventually
employ 2,000 people and produce
300 cars per day. The production
of the yet-unspecified model will
start in 1995, and the car will be
distributed worldwide.

This is a big step for the Ger-
man auto-maker. BMW’s an-
houncement comes in the midst of
the U.S. automotive industry’s
fragile state, where frequent plant
shutdown announcenients and
changes make some of the news in
monthly automotive magazines
obsolete by the time they are
printed.

BMW must also convince
Americans that their 1.9-million-
square-foot, state-of-the-art fa-
cility will not fall under the same
axe as Volkswagen AG, which
closed down their U.S. plant in
1988. On top of all this, add fur-

ther threats from stiff Japanese’

competition, and we have a situa-
tion where the word ‘‘chalienge’’
means just that.

However, despite appearing to
be a ‘“‘brave’’ move at
thought, BMW has made this
decision based on three years of
careful research. They evaluated
more than 250 locations in Ger-
many, Europe, and other coun-
tries around the world before
deciding on the U.S. One of tite
advantages of the plant is that the
cost of the car will no longer be
affected by the fluctuating ex-
change rates. In addition, prox-
imity to the extremely powerful

first

David
Chao

OVERDRIVE

U.S.consumers makes it easier for
BMW to incorporate changes and
revisions.

BMW is not going to be entirely
alone in this project either. They
will be getting help from state and
local governments, who will dish
out some up-front costs (such as
the purchase of the plant site).
Various suppliers will assists BMW
with components ranging from
plastic injection parts to seats,
tires, and other components.

Perhaps what is not so obvious
to the average consumer is the
fact that building a new plant
such as this one involves a
tremendous amount of labor,
time, and financial support, both
directly and indirectly. To begin
this project, a number of con-
sulting, . engineering, and other
technical companies must be hired
to design and engineer the build-
ing.

This, of course, must be done
together with BMW _ personnel
who will supervise and approve

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the basic building design.
production and plant engineers
will aiso be involved at this stage,
since they must ensure that the
building design properly accom-
modates all the proposed h:gh-
tech equipment. Many contractors
will be hired to physically con-
struct the building.

As the building evolves, sup-
pliers to the new BMW plant will
be gearing up to prepare for the

supply of various components. In:

some cases, this means building a
new plant to supply components
such as seats, usually on a just-
in-time basis. Equipment suppliers
will also be getting busy, designing
the automated and manual
equipment to meet all BMW
specifications.

Beginning to sound like a lot of
work? Well, this is still just the
beginning. Human resources, by
now, would have started the hir-
ing process for the hourly
workers, who will be doing the
actual assembly of the cars.
Depending on the complexity of
the hiring process, it’s not unusual
to take months to examine over
50,000 applications for 2,000 posi-
tions. I would also guess that a
number of locally hired members
will be given a chance to fly to
Germany for hands-on training,
at one of the BMW plants.

Eventually, believe it or not, the
dust will settle after many stages
of planning, designing, and in-
stallation, and the new plant will
be up and ready to go. But for

The . most

high-tech plants, this is
when the real challenge starts.

No matter how well the equip-
mert is designed, or how much
time the workers spent studying
other BMW piants, there is no
guarantee of success until the first
high-quality vehicle rolls out of
the new plant. And that wiil take
everyone, including the suppliers,
to work together utilizing all the
training and technical information
they've received.

It’s quite common for
engineers, technicians, and super-
visors to work 12- to 16-hour

days seven days a week, during
these first critical months of plant
start-up. Only after the first one
thousand cars or so are produced
can the team members relax and
say, ‘‘We’ve done it!”’

It’s a lot of work, yes, but
breathing life into a new plant is
also one of the most exciting
events for the auto-maker. And
knowing that BMW is relatively
conservative, I’m sure that the
new plant will produce an im-
pressive new product that may
add new meaning to the word
“‘chalenge”’ for competitors.

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