BMW iFACTORY: Next Level Production

Electrically powered vehicles are a key ingredient in ensuring the mobility of the future. The need to scale the production of electric vehicles in parallel with ongoing manufacturing is creating new challenges for the automotive industry as a whole.

The BMW Group is responding to these challenges with its BMW iFACTORY, a comprehensive production concept. “The BMW iFACTORY is not designed to be a one-off showcase plant, but rather will be implemented in all our plants going forward – at our 100-year-old main plant in Munich, as well as at the future plant in Debrecen, Hungary”, explains Milan Nedeljković, member of the Board of Management responsible for production at BMW AG.

The BMW iFACTORY focuses on two core areas: LEAN production and a DIGITAL factory. These elements will facilitate a successful process of transformation towards electromobility.

LEAN

As a driving force, LEAN refers to the company’s ambition to achieve efficient and highly flexible production that will make all future processes more integrable and variable.

By way of example, different drivetrains and vehicle models can be built on one and the same production line. At the Dingolfing plant, new BMW 7 Series models featuring combustion engines, plug-in hybrid systems and fully electric drivetrain systems will roll off the same production line, with the same applying to the BMW X1 and the BMW iX1 in Regensburg. The outcome: greater agility, lean processes and accordingly, future-oriented structures.

DIGITAL

Digitalisation is another key component of the BMW iFACTORY. Data science and artificial intelligence are making production significantly faster, more precise and more transparent – the core of DIGITAL. The merging of the real and virtual world opens up a new dimension for factory planning. Once developed, digital innovations can be applied throughout the entire production network.

“For me, digitalisation is the key to state-of-the-art production, making it an important pillar of our BMW iFACTORY”, says Milan Nedeljković, Board of Management member responsible for Production.

Find out more about the pilars of the BMW iFACTORY: LEAN and DIGITAL.

In the following video, you can learn more about the future of BMW Group production: