Friday March 24, 2023
The only attraction I booked before leaving home was a tour of the BMW factory assembly building just south of Spartanburg. Unfortunately, the only time they had open was midday so that left little time for much else except a walk in Falls Park on the Reedy in Greenville, SC before driving on to Commerce, Georgia.
I visited the Ford F 150 truck production line in 2015 (blogged here) and was amazed at the sophistication and precision of the interactions between the robots and workers but the extent to which the BMW production line was automated blew me away. We were shown the X3 coupe and X4 SUV production line and every vehicle is custom built based on the options, accessories and country as ordered by the customer. The same line is fully automated to know whether a vehicle is left or right hand drive, what wheels were ordered, as well as color of both interior and exterior, trim level, navigation and audio choices and all other options. The customer’s engine and transmission choice are custom built into a power train in Germany or Austria, shipped to the US, and then matched to the exact body in the assembly process. Parts are trucked to the plant and delivered to the appropriate assembly station as needed with only about 4 hours of production parts kept on site.
It is the largest BMW assembly plant in the world making over 1,500 vehicles a day which are delivered to some 120 countries. It is an engineering marvel but, unfortunately, I cannot show you anything as photos and video are strictly forbidden.
When my tour was over there was only time for a brief visit to Greenville, SC for a walk in a small park in downtown called Falls Park on the Reedy. This is beautiful but what made me want to visit this particular site is the presence of the only one-sided suspension bridge in the US. Liberty Bridge is a curved pedestrian bridge over the waterfalls on the Reedy river that is only supported by suspension cables attached to one side of the bridge.
The unsupported side seems to float in mid air and provides an unobstructed view of the falls below.
Walking across the bridge there is no noticeable swaying or vertical motion. If you want to know how this engineering marvel is achieved you can read about it here.
Greenville is one of the cities hosting NCAA women’s basketball regional games in a tournament known as “March Madness”. There was a game in progress as I drove past the arena today as can be briefly seen on the road video and in the park I found this
1500 vehicles a day!!! Wow! Truly a marvel plus the bridge too. Love, Kusum
What a great trip Steve. I wonder how the just-in-time or the just in sequence approach worked during the supply chain bottleneck.
I wondered the same thing but it was noisy in the plant, difficult to ask questions, and I forgot when we got back outside. They were still recommending masks for the tour so I expect they closed the plant for some time.