The BMW Group will invest more than $200 million in the construction of an approximately 20,000-square-foot press shop at its Spartanburg plant in South Carolina. This is associated with the creation of over 200 new jobs. This was announced by Robert Engelhorn, President and CEO of BMW Manufacturing, at the South Carolina Automotive Summit in Greenville (USA).
© Schuler
The new press shop will start production in summer 2024. From then on, steel coils will be cut to blanks at the US plant and sheet metal parts will be stamped for the BMW X models produced there. These are mainly add-on parts such as doors, fenders, exterior walls and the tailgate.
“The outstanding quality of BMW Group press plants is known worldwide. We are pleased to soon be using this new technology at the Spartanburg plant,” comments plant manager Engelhorn. “This investment underscores the BMW Group’s commitment to the U.S. and South Carolina in particular. We are and will continue to be a key driver of the region’s economic strength and workforce education and training.”
Highly qualified positions in production
A state-of-the-art stamping plant requires an advanced level of training for production employees, especially in tooling and stamping technology, for electrical and mechanical maintenance of automated machines, and for plant management. More than 45 employees from the Spartanburg plant are currently being trained at BMW Group press plants in Leipzig and Swindon (UK). These employees will also be trained by partners of the Schuler Group, which supplies automated servo press lines for BMW Group plants.
The automated press line itself is manufactured by Schuler. However, all the dies for the press shop in Spartanburg come from the BMW plants in Eisenach, Munich and Dingolfing.
Since 1992, BMW has invested nearly $12 billion in its plant in South Carolina, USA. With over 1,500 vehicles produced daily, it is the BMW Group’s largest plant worldwide. The plant has an annual production capacity of 450,000 vehicles and employs more than 11,000 people.
Web:
www.schulergroup.com
