BMW Group SA to start X3 production in the first half of 2018

18th April 2017

By: Irma Venter

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Production of the new X3 at the BMW plant in Rosslyn, outside Pretoria, for the local and export markets will start in the first half of 2018, says BMW Group South Africa (SA) and sub-Saharan Africa CEO Tim Abbott.

The plant currently produces the 3 Series sedan, also for the local and export markets.

In 2016, the facility produced 63 000 units, with 2017 to deliver roughly the same volume.

Around R6-billion is being spent on the Rosslyn facility to gear up for X3 production, says Abbott.

“With the new X3, the plant will, technically, be designed for a potential maximum capacity of 71 000 units [a year].”

Abbott adds that the sports-utility vehicle (SUV) is the “right vehicle for Africa going forward”.

He believes the German car maker will eventually also find a market for the X3 in African countries outside South Africa, such as Nigeria and Kenya, when the continent’s economy picks up speed again.

In 2016, around 30% of all BMWs sold globally were SUV X-models. X-model sales have jumped from 295 000 units in 2010, to 644 992 units in 2016.

Big Change
Having focused exclusively on 3 Series sedan production since 1990, gearing up for X3 assembly has led to “the biggest infrastructure change in the history of plant Rosslyn”, notes Abbott.

Around R500-million of the R6-billion capital expenditure budget for the X3 was spent over an eight-week shutdown period in December 2016 and January 2017.

Around 1 700 people spent a total of 1.4-million workhours at the plant, moving 2 225 t of material into the plant, and removing 1 959 t from the facility. Around 226 km of cabling were also put in place during the shutdown.

The X3 project sees BMW Group SA make use of a new body shop, an upgraded paint shop, a new combined vehicle body stacker and a refreshed assembly line.

A new training centre, due to open in the middle of the year, will also gear up the company’s employees for production of the new X3.

BMW Group SA’s paint plant has always been “the Achilles heel, in terms of quality, of the Rosslyn plant”, says Abbott. “Now it is comparable with the best anywhere in the world”.

The new paint plant will save 20% on its energy use, partly by cutting the primer phase (and the use of an oven after this phase) from the traditional four-phase process of e-coat, primer, base coat and clear coat. A new integrated paint process sees the base coat take over the function of the primer coat.

The Rosslyn plant’s new combined body stacker can store up to 132 painted and unpainted car bodies. At 32 m high it is the tallest building in Rosslyn.

The plant’s new body shop will increase the amount of robots used from 190 to 288, says Abbott. Job opportunities will also increase.

A number of BMW Group SA staff have been upskilled to become maintenance personnel at the bodyshop.

“We also do a lot more manual work in our body shop than in Germany, for example, in an effort to create jobs,” says body shop GM Danny Bester.

The new 26 000 m2 body shop, with its improved ventilation and use of natural light, is twice the size of the old body shop.

The old body shop will become a logistics space once X3 production starts.

The assembly plant received a new roof as part of the X3 project.

The roof had to be lifted by 14 m to enable production of the taller X3 (compared with the 3 Series). The new roof was built over the existing roof, with the existing roof then taken down.

The planned change in production also brought a hanger system to the plant, which brings the vehicle being assembled to the worker (associate in BMW-speak), instead of the associate moving to and from the unit.

The plant also received technology that turns vehicles on their sides to allow for the easy fitment of components such as fuel lines, instead of associates working overhead.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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