BMW 2004 Annual Report Download - page 164
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34 A plant takes shape
May 2003. By now, the sites of the body shop, paint shop and assembly hall
are clearly visible from the air: three buildings arranged in a circle around the
central building and surrounded by large open spaces and supply routes.
Trucks use these routes to supply the assembly areas directly. Unlike at con-
ventional facilities, there is no central delivery area, so no time is lost on trans-
portation within the plant. At the Leipzig plant, parts delivered directly by truck
do not have to be taken more than seven metres to their installation point.
Four “fingers” solve a problem that has bothered the auto-
mobile industry for many decades.
The design of the assembly hall is also striking as its ground plan is reminiscent
of a hand with four outstretched fingers. This “finger structure”, which has
meanwhile been patented for the BMW Group, is considered a real revolution
because it addresses a problem that has bothered the automobile industry
ever since series production began: the complexity of responding to structural
changes. If a plant is designed to meet current requirements, it may soon reach
its capacity limits. And if it is planned on a larger scale in order to cope with
possible future growth, valuable capital is tied up and structures are built which
may never be needed.
The “Greenfield” project team found a solution to this dilemma: build for today,
provide for tomorrow. At the very start, the planners considered every possible
scenario for the development of the automobile industry over the next 25 years.
Then the plant was designed accordingly. For example, pipes were laid, for
future use, right up to the sides of the building, and central track areas were kept
free within the halls so that additional conveyor technology can be installed as
required. Additional production lines can be set up at any time on the large
open spaces next to the halls without having to interrupt ongoing production.
The assembly hall’s “finger structure” is the answer to short-term technologi-
cal innovations and model changes. Formerly, each time a new assembly
element was added, the various stations of the production line had to be shifted,
a cumbersome and costly process. Now, at the Leipzig plant, almost any num-
ber of elements can be added within the fingers (and thus in between existing
stations). The “fingers” thus literally work as docking points for the future.