[Twist]

I recently visited the BMW Plant in Spartanburg, SC. I had my camera with me so I took a bunch of pictures. I also took the plant tour, but no pictures were allowed on that. Below are a bunch of pictures of the cars and bikes in the Zentrum, which is the name of the museum and visitors center.

The Plant is very large and rises as high as 8 stories in some sections. The Z3, M Coupe and X5 are all manufactured at this plant. The vehicles manufactured here are shipped all over the world. So if you see an M coupe in Germany it was built in SC. With the M Coupe and Z3, 25% of the manufacturing is automated and 75% is manual. It's just the opposite with the X5, where 75% is automated.

All the employees are called "assoicates" and every one is on a first name basis including the president. Every one wears black slacks, gloves, armcovers and a BMW polo shirt. The shirt is either blue, white or grey and has the associates first name on it. Employees are encouraged to lease vehicles and after they are driven for 8-10,000 miles they are turned back in for a new vehicle. The old vehicles are then auctioned off to dealers. The parking lot was 50+% BMW's.

On the average 7-8 of each type of car are fully built a day. BMW does not mass produce vehicles. Every vehicle is purpose built for a customer. The last thing to be added to each vehicle is the BMW logo on the hood. Before the logo is attached, a black box is on the hood with electronic tracking information. These vehicles are shipped all over the world so they are both right and left hand drive. The engines are not built here, but everything else is. All assembly takes place here.

The manufacturing takes place in the order of VIN numbers. Painting, however, takes place out of order. This saves money and allows for greater speed when painting. A giant stacker that rises 7 to 8 stories files the cars as the come out of the painting area and stores them until they are called upon for further assembly.

Below is a picture of the Zentrum Building from the Zentrum brochure.