This afternoon I went on a tour of Plant Oxford, home of MINI production.
The afternoon started with a brief video explaining how MINI body panels are produced in Swindon, and the engines at Hams Hall just outside fo Birmingham, and then everything is put together at the former Rover/BL/Rootes group factory at Cowley in Oxford.
We then went in to the actual plant itself to see the chassis and body panels being assembled in to the body of the car - 200 people and 500 robots create the vehicle - which is then painted (unfortunatley we couldn't go in the paint shop, due to foreign material exclusion rules) and then passed in to another building to be kitted out with the engines, and all the interior and exterior gubbins.
The speed with which it all runs is quite fast, with the 'associates' having about 60-70 seconds to complete their bit of work on the car, which might be fitting the window airbags, the whole dashboard (which comes pre-assembled from another factory in Redditch) or the wheels.
What makes the whole prodution process all the more breathtaking, is that there are 15,000,000,000,000 potential spec combinations for any MINI, and all three bodystyles (hatch, convertible and Clubman are essentially produced on the same line (although Clubman bodies are produced on a separate line before joining in at the paint stage), to each individual customer's order - as only cars which have been specifically ordered are built (unlike other manufacturers who just build, build, build...). Quite a feat!
50 cars an hour are produced, which are then expported to over 70 countries around the world!
If anyone is interested in car production, MINIs or just wants an different afternoon out, I would definitely recommend a visit!
It was a really fab couple of hours, and great value at only £8 to see something (car production), which isn't generally easy to gain access to.
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this might be of interest
its not a link to rick astley
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Yeah, have seen that before - they do it every year for charity. Looks like a good do, but obviously quite expensive to participate in (maybe one day....)
Am really liking the MINI Clubmans now after seeing them rolling down the production line....hmmm, either Pepper White n Black like now, or Hot Choc and Silver....
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Thoroughly agree with you about how fascinating seeing the process at work is.
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