BMW outlines iFACTORY manufacturing technique; transformation to e-mobility; Plant Debrecen first CO2-free plant

BMW’s iFACTORY manufacturing technique defines the longer term orientation of vegetation and manufacturing applied sciences on the BMW Group and meets the challenges of the transformation to e-mobility.

Automotive manufacturing of the longer term requires a brand new, holistic mind-set. With our BMW iFACTORY, we’re main the best way and setting new requirements in flexibility, effectivity, sustainability and digitalization.

—Milan Nedeljković, Member of the Board of Administration of BMW AG, liable for Manufacturing

The strategic imaginative and prescient of the worldwide manufacturing community is the BMW iFACTORY. LEAN. GREEN. DIGITAL., with an integrative, international strategy.

The BMW iFACTORY is just not a one-off showpiece however an strategy we are going to implement in any respect our vegetation sooner or later —from our 100-year-old house plant in Munich to our forthcoming plant in Debrecen, Hungary.

—Milan Nedeljković

BMW Group Manufacturing Community: 31 manufacturing websites in 15 international locations.

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The BMW iFACTORY focuses the BMW Group’s manufacturing experience on three key matter areas:

• LEAN, which stands for effectivity, precision and excessive flexibility;

• GREEN, for sustainability, resource-efficiency and circularity; and

• DIGITAL, for the lively use of digitalisation in information science, synthetic intelligence (AI) and virtualization.

The holistic strategy of the BMW iFACTORY is underpinned by the pliability, launch experience and integration functionality within the firm’s manufacturing system.

LEAN: Primarily based on extremely versatile, environment friendly manufacturing. The BMW Group’s manufacturing community is on the cusp of a basic transformation: the Neue Klasse, due for manufacturing launch in 2025, is predicated on a very new car structure.

With its clear concentrate on the all-electric drive, it units the situations for future car generations to be manufactured effectively and in keeping with the corporate’s profitability and high quality objectives. The BMW iFACTORY is now set to strengthen the confirmed success components of the worldwide manufacturing community.

LEAN is about extremely versatile, environment friendly manufacturing by means of streamlined processes in aggressive buildings. A single BMW manufacturing line can produce totally different drive sorts and car fashions. Additionally they set the usual when it comes to speedy responsiveness and adaptableness, absorbing provide bottlenecks and shortages comparatively spontaneously and reacting rapidly to fluctuations in demand. For patrons, this flexibility means they’ll change sure components of their car configuration as much as six days earlier than the manufacturing date.

The purpose of the BMW iFACTORY is to make use of much more significant real-time information from all through the manufacturing course of to manage international manufacturing extra intently and transparently obtain the quickest doable response occasions. This can improve not solely quantity and market planning but additionally provide chain and stock administration and assist focused work on high quality as effectively.

GREEN: Sustainability alongside your entire worth chain. With BMW iFACTORY, the concentrate on sustainable manufacturing is stronger than ever.

Environmental, financial and social duty are inseparable, and we try to realize all three not solely within the product itself however alongside your entire worth chain. By 2030 we purpose to scale back CO2 emissions from manufacturing by 80 p.c in comparison with 2019,

— Milan Nedeljković

With its new plant in Debrecen, Hungary—the place manufacturing of the all-electric Neue Klasse will launch in 2025—the BMW Group is getting into a brand new period in sustainable automotive manufacturing.

Our plans are for Plant Debrecen to be the primary automotive plant on this planet to dispense fully with fossil vitality sources in its manufacturing processes. Debrecen will likely be our first CO₂-free car plant and places us clearly on the vanguard of developments on this regard.

—Milan Nedeljković

A major share of the plant’s electrical energy will likely be generated immediately on web site. The rest will likely be coated by 100% renewables, the overwhelming majority of which can come from regional sources.

One other factor of sustainable manufacturing is constant circularity. Wherever doable, manufacturing supplies and sources will likely be reused. Steel offcuts and filings from milling, for instance, will likely be recycled and reused, whereas waste warmth from cooling will likely be fed right into a circuit to warmth indoor areas and water.

Saving sources considerably advantages the corporate economically. Examples embody the resource-saving wet-in-wet portray course of (IPP) and using direct present in automotive physique development for the primary time.

The vitality that powers the BMW Group’s vegetation all over the world is sourced purely from renewables. As Plant Leipzig develops into a middle of excellence for hydrogen, the corporate’s services worldwide have gotten more and more unbiased of third-party vitality suppliers or different exterior influences. That is enabled by a mix of self-generated and saved vitality with versatile load profiles all through manufacturing. Right here, the most recent digital strategies and complete methods guarantee most transparency and assist the constant discount of vitality consumption in addition to the needs-based use of renewables on the premise of correct forecasts.

An additional key problem within the subject of local weather safety is biodiversity. The number of wildlife at BMW Group websites worldwide is being promoted by means of focused, region-specific measures, from beehives and falcons to meadow orchards.

In the meantime, to assist GREEN logistics each inside and out of doors the vegetation, the BMW iFACTORY adopts an open-minded strategy to applied sciences, specializing in environmentally sustainable ideas. Throughout the subsequent few years, for instance, elevated use of rail transport and electrical vehicles will imply zero native emissions from transport logistics at Plant Munich.

DIGITAL: From improvements to efficient use circumstances. Manufacturing on the BMW Group makes use of the most recent applied sciences to hyperlink all of the related product, course of, high quality and value information between improvement, planning and manufacturing processes. The primary focus right here is on purposes from the fields of virtualization, information science and synthetic intelligence.

Virtualization performs an necessary position inside the BMW iFACTORY technique mannequin. In a primary step, each element of all of the BMW Group’s manufacturing websites is being recorded in a 3D scan. On this approach, planning work could be carried out just about at any time and from anyplace. Within the subsequent logical step, a digital illustration—or digital twin—is created of every manufacturing unit in its entirety. This could then be utilized by planning specialists in real-time collaborations throughout totally different areas and time zones.

This strategy permits digital merchandise to be built-in into the manufacturing unit early on, for instance, and considerably reduces planning work additional down the road. It additionally permits investments to be optimized and enhances course of effectivity and the steadiness of product launches.

Knowledge science offers the foundations for fact-, figure- and (real-time) data-based decision-making. Constant, clear information permits the basis causes to be recognized rapidly and proactively in order that processes could be optimized. BMW Group manufacturing already makes use of greater than 200 AI-based purposes. The know-how permits numerous logistics and manufacturing processes to be automated for higher high quality assurance. As well as, standardized platforms and self-services imply options could be scaled quickly for software throughout all applied sciences and areas.

The important thing components behind the transformation of BMW Group manufacturing are the developments within the automotive market and specs round local weather change. The BMW Group is already doubling its manufacturing of electrical autos in 2022, having delivered greater than 35,000 totally electrical automobiles to prospects within the first quarter alone. On the similar time, the most recent technical improvements are supporting the corporate because it contributes considerably to local weather safety and sustainability.

The BMW iFACTORY delivers not solely on the growing buyer demand for electrical autos but additionally on our need, as a member of society, to assist local weather safety and sustainability. We’re utilizing digitalization to make this occur – whereas remaining completely aggressive.

—Milan Nedeljković