# Plant Oxford Tour (no pictures)



## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

We toured BMW Plant Oxford on Friday. Here are some thoughts and random things we noticed.

BMW has 3 plants in the UK. BMW kept the Pressed Steel Fisher plant in Swindon and it now makes the body panels for all MINI models. BMW Hams Hall assembles MINI engines along with 4-cylinder BMW engines. BMW Plant Oxford builds the bodies and assembles the MINI.

The plant is housed in the former Rootes Group plant across the road from the plant that built the classic Mini. BMW didn't own the land under the old Rover Mini plant. That plant is now gone, replaced by a shopping center and some office buildings. 

Our tour guide started out working for Rootes, then for the series of companies that took over the Rootes plant, ending with BMW. He is retired and comes in to give an occasional plant tour. We toured the body shop and the assembly line. 

The plant buildings look old, even on the inside. You can't help but notice you are in a plant built before 1940.

The tooling on the lines is mostly from 2001, with a new body shop line for the Clubman.

Everything is 'small' compared to other car plants we've seen. The lines are not as flexible as the South Carolina plant. I doubt they could build anything bigger than a Clubman without retooling everything. 

The line that builds the MINI Hatch body is really compact. I'm sure that's why the Clubman is on a brand new line. 

The level of automation in the bodyshop is amazing. Nothing like South Carolina. The bodyshop felt down right empty. The Clubman line wasn't running when we toured. Our guide spoke to someone and 3 minutes later the line started up. I think 2 people were all it took to get the line going building complete bodies. They shut it back down when we were done. It was obvious they aren't building at Capacity.

The plant can build 12 convertibles an hour. Guide wasn't exactly sure where the bottle neck is but it has something to with putting the top on. We didn't get to see that part of assembly. I suspect it was off limits for the standard tour.
Demand for the convertible is high and they are now building 'verts 6 days a week. 


Assembly line was somewhat similar to south carolina with all sorts of minor differences. For example SC heats the wiring harnesses before putting them in the cars. (makes them more flexible) Oxford does not.

Workers in SC don't do any single job for more than 2 hours. They are rotated between jobs and are trained to do several. At Oxford a worker does the same job for his entire shift. Workers in a group (typically 5-8 people) can do each other's job but usually won't do that unless someone in their group is out sick. 


Unlike SC, 40% of the workforce at Oxford comes from Eastern Europe. Guide says back when BMW was hiring they couldn't get local people to take the jobs. The pay isn't bad. Average salary is about £25,000/year. Workforce was nearly all male too. That's really different than the US plant.




We got to see some cars that failed inspections and even were shown why they failed. He stopped someone to have him show us a bad weld. No way were we going to see that in SC. Guide there really glossed over any problems that might happen.


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## mullman (Jan 5, 2006)

Thanks for taking the time to 'file' this report - interesting stuff! :thumbup:

I've had the pleasure to tour BMW facilities in SC (about 90mi from my home), Munich, Garching, & Dingolfing.
I've been through Oxford a few times, but did not have the time to visit MINI. Hopefully next time.


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## JackMac (Mar 10, 2006)

Great report, thanks for sharing :thumbup:



Andrew*Debbie said:


> Unlike SC, 40% of the workforce at Oxford comes from Eastern Europe.


I always suspected that my MINI had something in common with a Trabant!


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