[Video] A Peek Inside BMW’s Dadong Plant in China

BMW announced last week that Brilliance Automotive, their Chinese partner, will be opening a new north section of their joint-venture plant in Dadong Shenyang, China. This expansion will allow BMW to manufacture 450,000 units a year, similar to the production capacity of the Spartanburg North America Plant.

The partnership with Brilliance Automotive was necessitated by the legislation in China requiring foreign companies to join forces with a local automaker to be granted manufacturing permits.

The new extension of the Dadong plant is well-equipped with the latest technologies available. BMW makes no compromises in quality with exigent quality checks abiding by the Industry 4.0 standards. All key technologies were involved in the expansion of the plant. This includes a press plant, body shop, paint shop and assembly. It utilizes highly-advanced equipment and the latest in process digitalization. Using 3D computer simulation, for example, the direct-drive servo press installed in the press plant can process aluminum to an extremely high quality standard. Optical laser scanners then measure the body and verify quality in a matter of seconds. Exoskeletons work on the car body so that workload for production employees will be reduced. Mobile smart devices such as tablets provide employees with precisely the information they need.

The Shanyang complex is made up of the Tiexi and Dadong plants that manufacture the BMW X1 LWB to the 1 Series Sedan, 2 Series Tourer, 3 Series Sedan – in both standard and long wheelbase versions. With the extension, Shanyang will also manufacture the 5 Series long wheelbase model.