No Corporate Holidays Like VAZ: How BMW Teaches Robots, People, and Overhauls the Factory Simultaneously

BMW has opened the doors of the Munich plant and training centers to showcase how the company is preparing for the Neue Klasse era. The main construction work within the corporation is happening right inside the existing production facility: one-third of old buildings are being demolished, 600,000 tons of materials are being removed, and new three-level workshops are being assembled literally around the working lines. Up to 800 trucks pass through the site daily, while the plant continues to produce around a thousand cars per day. BMW management compares the process to ‘open-heart surgery’: employees are transferred, equipment is rearranged, and logistics routes are changed on the fly. Special attention is given to the people. The closure of the engine plant required retraining 1200 specialists, who were given an individual path for integration into the new processes.