A Mini Transformation

Automotive Industries, August, 2001 by Alex James

BMW completely rebuilds an ex-Rover plant to produce the new Mini.

The problem: You have a car you don't own being built in a factory you do own; and you have a car that you own being built in a factory you don't own. The solution: Take a big breath and shut down for six months.

That's what happened to BMW AG when it sold Rover Cars. The upmarket Rover 75 sedan was being built at Cowley in Oxford, England, while the new Mini was scheduled to be built at its historic home in Longbridge, Birmingham, where the old Morris Co. built 602,817 Minis between 1959 and 1968.

Also an issue, the Mini supplier base was stuck around Longbridge, some 70 miles from Cowley.

Paul Chantry, director of the Oxford body shop, says the sale meant moving the $110 million Rover 75 production line from Cowley to Longbridge, literally taking the line apart as the last 75 went through the shop and moving the new $160 million Mini production line from Longbridge to Oxford. BMW ploughed an additional $320 million into Cowley to turn the Mini production line into a world class facility.

The moving process started in July 2000. The first Mini bodyshell was produced in Oxford in January. Ten weeks later, the first fully assembled car was produced. "The plan was to be producing 85 cars a day by mid-June, and we're actually building 100," says Chantry.

Full production with a second shift will be 500 cars a day, scheduled for the end of the year. By then the former Rover plant will have been totally transformed. Facilities have been upgraded to match any BMW plant in the world. The new paint shop was built in 1997 as part of an initial investment of $395 million, which also included refurbishing the body shop and final assembly areas. The body-in-white and assembly areas now resemble BMW's plant in Spartanburg, S.C., where the Z3 and X5 are built.

Assembly director Rainer Bickmann says Spartanburg was the benchmark for Crowley's transformation, while Regensburg, Germany -- where the 3-Series is built -- was the sister plant for Oxford. This manufacturing 'twinning' arrangement allows best practices to be shared.

More than 200 workers from Oxford spent several months at Spartanburg and Regensburg to become familiar with BMW work practices and production standards.

BMW Oxford now employs 2,500 and is recruiting another 1,800 to add a second shift.

BMW will build about 30,000 Minis this year and 100,000 next year. Dr. Herbert Diess, managing director, believes that even at that level of production the Oxford plant will be globally competitive. "As with any other product of the BMW Group, the new Mini has to and will earn money. Over the life cycle, even the first generation of this car will be profitable," he asserts.

Complex modules, flexible line

There are 200 suppliers to the Mini, half of whom are U.K.-based, supplying 40 percent of parts. Body panels are delivered directly to the body-in-white facility from BMW Group's stamping plant in Swindon (a former Rover facility 30 miles from Gowley) or Ford's Land Rover plant in Solihull, Birmingham, another legacy of BMW's aborted Rover ownership.

A major feature of the interior Is the cockpit, comprising the complete facia with steering wheel, steering column, instruments and controls, heater and wiring harness assembled as a single unit into the car.

Magna International ships the unit from its Redditch, U.K., plant with a six-hour lead time -- Redditch is about 50 miles from Gowley. The cockpit module arrives directly to the assembly line without any manual handling from the moment of dispatch to fitment. Seats are supplied in sets on a similar basis from Johnson Controls Inc., also based in the West Midlands.

Working practices at BMW Oxford are among the most flexible in the industry. At the moment, a single 9.25-hour shift is worked anywhere from four to seven days a week, with the extra days above four being called as late as Wednesday each week.

It is this flexibility that makes Oxford very competitive, claims Bickmnann. "I can do far more here than I could in a German plant," he notes, adding that Oxford would be even more competitive if the U.K. joined the Euro, the European single currency.

Everyone is on performance-related pay, with bonuses paid twice a year. "We have paid the June bonus and we anticipate paying bonuses in December as well," says Diess.