There was a time when BMW engines were built in Germany. That time is gone—and workers at the BMW Hams Hall engine plant near Birmingham, England, are glad of it. Their jobs should be secure for a long time, as the BMW Group recently invested over $1,149,000,000 in United Kingdom manufacturing facilities, including a Hams Hall expansion that is nearly complete.
New facilities are appropriate since Hams Hall will be building new, next-generation three- and four-cylinder engines on new production lines. The factory will machine over 1,000,000 components in 2015 for the first time and will supply items to other BMW Group plants.
The new engines and machined components will see service in both Mini and BMW models. For example, the recently launched Mini Clubman and BMW 7 Series will contain products from Hams Hall.
Markus Fallboehmerm, Hams Hall plant director, explained, “The transformation in our plant has been huge. Over the last few years we have completely redeveloped our two main production areas and installed over 600 brand-new pieces of equipment and machinery. While a high level of technology and automation ensures our plant remains a state-of-the-art facility, the ergonomics of the workstations where we have more manual input have been carefully thought through and adjusted to suit each individual member of the team.
“A large investment has also been made in our workforce via a number of training programs and opportunities for people to upskill and take on new job roles. We have changed the make-up of our workforce as well with over 100 people securing BMW contracts, some of whom were previously working for us on a temporary basis. Looking further ahead to the future, we have trebled the number of apprentices training with us to ensure we have a strong, skilled workforce for many years to come.”
Rather than being the sole provider of certain products, BMW Plant Hams Hall will be joined by other BMW factories that will produce the same new family of next-generation engines, including plants in Germany and Austria.
“Our new engine family of highly efficient three-, four-, and six-cylinder engines have a standard design, a high number of similar parts and a uniform process for manufacture,” noted Ilka Horstmeier, who heads up BMW Group’s global production network for engines and electrified powertrains. “This gives us a large amount of flexibility, and means we can optimize production between each of our manufacturing locations and respond quickly to changes in customer demand or market developments. The investment in Hams Hall has enabled the plant to grow and play an ever-increasingly important role in the production of these latest engines.”
While some new engines may be built at multiple plants, at least one is made only at Hams Hall. Fans of the exotic BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car may be interested to find out that Hams Hall workers hand build the i8’s three-cylinder, BMW TwinPower Turbo 1.5-liter gasoline engines on a special assembly line. This particular engine, as part of the i8’s hybrid powertrain, has won numberous awards as well as two class wins and an overall win at the International Engine of the Year awards.
Other powerplants coming out of Hams Hall include 1.5- to three-liter EfficientDynamics high-tech gasoline and diesel engines, all with TwinPower Turbo technology. The adaptability and modularity of the new generation of engines allow production to be flexible, with large production volumes on some engines, and small runs of special versions of the engines on others.
In its fourteen-year history Hams Hall has produced over 3,500,000 engines. About 1,000 area residents are employed there. The number of young people on apprenticeships and graduate training programs has tripled over the last four years.
Once production has been fully ramped up, a new engine will come off the production line every minute, while the machining division will produce over 1,000,000 new parts this year, doubling its production.
Smaller, highly efficient vehicles are essential to the BMW Group’s long-term financial viability, and all those vehicles will need engines. BMW Plant Hams Hall with its new production lines will be making a lot of them.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
