Spartanburg, SC when I was leaving Florida in 2013. It seems one has to
book very, very early. This time I planned accordingly and got in - what a
place.
I visited the day before to check out the performance center and spend time
in the museum. The first car on display was an exact replica of my first
BMW, a turquoise Z3. The pictures are some of the models on display here in
the museum.
Arrived ready for the tour - what a place!
The models made here are the X3, X4, X5, X6, and beginning next year they
will also produce the X8, at which time they will be the largest BMW
manufacturer in the world (surpassing even the German plants). Seventy
percent of the cars manufactured here are shipped overseas.
They complete 1200 cars per day and it takes 32 hours to produce each car.
It is really quite a feat when one sees that the cars are all produced based
on custom orders or orders from dealers - meaning, that on the line there
could be an X3 with and X6 or X4 behind it. Every car has a computer
attached to it to make this possible and to make sure that it meets the
ordered specs. Not the normal assembly line process.
Besides building a great car - BMW has created a great work place with more
than 8,000 associates and a turnover rate less than 3%.
