Inside a BMW Factory
 05 March 2019

The March Members Meeting at Shannons featured a fascinating presentation on car manufacturing and assembly by Lawrence Glynn.

Lawrence worked for the Department of Transport for many years, auditing car makers’ processes for meeting Australian Design Rules (ADRs), and he drew on his experience to outline the key principles of mass production.  Contrary to popular belief these weren’t invented by Henry Ford, although he was certainly the first to put them into practice at scale, thus revolutionising (some might say inventing) the global car industry.  

Lawrence highlighted the importance of consistency and repeat-ability in mass production, and the vital role of design and production engineers in achieving this in the most efficient manner.

Lawrence enlivened his presentation with some great stories from his assembly plant visits all over the world, although unfortunately he adhered to the mantra of “no names, no pack drill”!  He finished with a YouTube video showing the new 3 Series being manufactured and assembled.  The video revealed the widespread use of robots and advanced sensors to achieve quality, but also showed the many human checks that are still required.  None of the workers managed to crack a smile for the cameras however!

The presentation was attended and enjoyed by approximately 20 members.

David Francis | Member #243
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne