Automotive Engineering - March 2023 - 4

TECHNOLOGY
REPORT
MANUFACTURING
BMW takes multi-modal route to manufacturing
SAE INTERNATIONAL
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Todd Zarfos
President
Carla Bailo
2024 President
Srinivasa (Sri) Srinath, Ph.D
2022 President
Susan Ying, Ph.D
Vice President - Aerospace
Daniel Nicholson
Vice President - Automotive
Audley Brown
Vice President -
Commercial Vehicle
Andrew Jeffers
Treasurer
David L. Schutt, Ph.D
Chief Executive Officer
To create the iFactory, virtual modeling helped optimize floor space for the tooling and automation. BMW used
NVIDIA's Omniverse platform's factory planning tool to integrate various planning data and applications.
BMW's Munich factory remains the fertile root
of a century of manufacturing, including its
first R32 motorcycle in 1923. At the Munich
plant - flanked by the engine-shaped " fourcylinder "
headquarters tower and futuristic
BMW Welt museum and customer-delivery
center - BMW recently showed media its reimagined
" iFactory. " This lean, green and digitized
environment can build ICE, hybrid, electric
or even hydrogen fuel-cell models on a
single assembly line. That master plan includes
a car and battery factory in Debrecen, Hungary,
that BMW claims will be the industry's first
CO2-emissions-free plant in 2025, fed entirely
by photovoltaic or other renewable electricity.
Prepping for the Neue Klasse
Walking Munich's squeaky-clean assembly line,
SAE Media watched some 2,000 robots hoist,
weld or glue components for five different BMW
models. One carousel-like machine might boggle
Henry Ford himself, feeding steel side rails from
multiple models onto a single assembly track.
Vehicles roll past worker stations, their bodies
canted sideways in mid-air, some exposing the
telltale orange cables of electrified cars. These
include plug-in hybrid versions of the 3-Series
sedan and Touring wagon, but mainly the new i4
electric sedan. Munich is on pace to produce
100,000 i4s in 2023, reaching half the factory's
4 March 2023
200,000-car annual capacity. That aligns neatly
with BMW's forecast of where customers' heads
(and wallets) will be in 2030, when it expects
50% of its global output to be EVs.
BMW also is developing skateboard platforms
exclusively for EVs, including for eagerlyawaited
" Neue Klasse " cars expected in 2025.
Both Munich and Debrecen will produce Neue
Klasse models, powered by BMW's new, Teslastyle
4595 and 46120 large-format cylindrical
batteries. Down the road in Dingolfing, BMW
has spent 400 million euros to integrate production
of the sumptuous, scenery-blurring iX
electric SUV. But the company says it has not
abandoned investment in ICEs, or platforms
that can support a range of powertrains.
H2-powered paint shop
Martin Schuster, BMW Group VP for high-voltage
batteries, is convinced BMW is on the right
powertrain track. " There will be flexibility within
the entire BMW range, " Schuster insisted.
BMW engineers say their company's flexible
manufacturing strategy can better react to
changing consumer tastes, supply-chain snafus
or other unforeseen events. If buyers clamor for
more EVs, or another model cools off, BMW can
adjust production on-the-fly. New iFactories
should take that fast reaction time to a granular
level: Buyers will be able to change orders as little
Gregory L. Bradley, Esq.
Secretary
Judy Curran
Mary Lee Gambone
Michael Weinert
Joan Wills
SAE International Sections
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International Members in a defined
technical or geographic area. The purpose
of local Sections is to meet the technical,
developmental, and personal needs of the
SAE Members in a given area. For more
information, please visit sae.org/sections
or contact SAE Member Relations Specialist
Abby Hartman at abby.hartman@sae.org.
SAE International
Collegiate Chapters
Collegiate Chapters are a way for SAE
International Student Members to get
together on their campus and develop
skills in a student-run and -elected
environment. Student Members are vital
to the continued success and future of
SAE. While your course work teaches
you the engineering knowledge you
need, participation in your SAE Collegiate
Chapter can develop or enhance other
important skills, including leadership,
time management, project management,
communications, organization, planning,
delegation, budgeting, and finance. For
more information, please visit students.
sae.org/chapters/collegiate/ or contact
SAE Member Relations Specialist Abby
Hartman at abby.hartman@sae.org.
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
BMW

http://www.sae.org/sections http://www.sae.org/chapters/collegiate/

Automotive Engineering - March 2023

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