--- title: BMW: A Company on the Edge | TIME description: A look inside BMW's largest manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. canonical: https://time.com/video/IuolG6le/ og:title: BMW: A Company on the Edge og:description: A look inside BMW's largest manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. og:url: https://time.com/video/IuolG6le/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/IuolG6le/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: BMW: A Company on the Edge twitter:description: A look inside BMW's largest manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/IuolG6le/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # BMW: A Company on the Edge > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: BMW: A Company on the Edge [Watch (HLS stream): BMW: A Company on the Edge](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IuolG6le.m3u8) (6:40)  _Published 2015-06-08. A look inside BMW's largest manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:23 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [BMW: The Driver's Experience](/video/PYSexrsX/) ### BMW: The Driver's Experience [BMW: Designing the Future](/video/Hs2Hzlg2/) ### BMW: Designing the Future [Skidding Kids Learn Safe Driving at BMW's School for Teens](/video/AfBAoDpy/) ### Skidding Kids Learn Safe Driving at BMW's School for Teens --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] For more than a century, the American economy and much of it's culture has been tied to the ups and downs of the car business. The birth of the United States as a world power Aligns very closely with the birth of the United States as an automaking country. The times of the good ol' days when Henry Ford said, you can have any car you want as long as it's black, are over. Now, it's It's about what does the customer want and how do we provide that to them as quickly as possible. With competition greater than ever, answering what's next is the key to survival, and manufacturing is one of, if not the most important component, in actually getting there. Manufacturing is the single most important thing In keeping an auto manufacturer profitable. It's kind of where the rubber meets the road. It's challenging, it's extremely tough but that's where the rewards at as well. Our parts come together and to see it start up for the first time I mean to me that's intriguing. We get to work around fantastic sexy machines. It's an incredible Process, it's pretty impressive, there's a certain level of craft and pride that goes into the work. [ NOISE ] Detroit was once the center of not just American but Global car manufacturing. When that began to erode the power center started to shift. But not all of it went overseas. Cities and States around the US began trying to lure foreign and domestic auto makers with generous financial incentives. For decades American auto manufacturing was losing jobs to the rest of the world and whats happened in the last six or seven years is youve started to see this hugs influx back into the United States . >> While Honda went to Alabama and Volkswagen set up shop in Tennessee, BMW headed for a small town in South Carolina BMW chose Spartanburg for several reasons. The primary focus was textiles and even that was dying down. It has a deep water port near by in Charleston which is pretty import if you're exporting. We also have a very extensive rail line so it makes it easy for us to distribute Distribute things across the United States and an extremely skilled work force. In the south which are so called right to work states which don't have a lot of collective bargaining, the labor can be less expensive which makes products made here more profitable to sell around the world. People from this community had to build a car, there was a significant amount of passion and pride because Each associate was putting his or her hands on the car and had an impact on the quality. The Spartanburg facility where its X series of SUVs are built continue to grow. By next year, it will be BMW's biggest plant worldwide. [ MUSIC ] Americans created. The demand for the heavy SUVs. So it's only natural that the companies would make those vehicles where they're gonna sell them by people who might potentially be their customers. For the 9, 000 employees and the robots that assist them at BMW's Spartanburg X = SAV or Sports Activity Vehicle at about 400, 000 cars per year or 1, 500 a day. Right now we export 70 % of what we manufacture. We make four x models here and we're the only plant that makes these models. So, we have to supply for the world market which is over 140 countries. And the plant continues to expand to meet those expectations. Technology and innovation, of course, play an important role in manufacturing. [ UNKNOWN ] has a huge impact in terms of costs. Transitioning reliance to renewable and clean energy sources from land filled gas and solar programs to the worlds largest hydrogen fuel cell fleet Put sustainability on the line at BMW Spartanburg. In the very beginning it was very manual. And as the models grew, we've tried to take some of the human error out of the system. The automotive business was born out of efficiency and precision. The robots are a key part of our process here. But they don't dominate our process. People think robots replace people, but there's a lot of work that goes into keeping a robot running. But it's always been a business that's really turned on how do you make stuff as efficiently as possible with the labor that you have. We're starting with just a sheet metal part and building up a complete body in Well, we'll assemble the front end, the rear end and the middle. From there we frame that body. The car body travels across a series of conveyers, and when it comes in the paint, We completely submerge it in several stages of cleaners and coating. We have our customers In vehicle process. And that enables us to change that order right up to several hours before I send them. You could go months without building the same car twice. High level of customization and that's always been particularly true with BMW. Cars arrive into assembly first station where the car's actually assigned to the customer, it belongs to somebody We go into what we call our tilt area, which turns the car on its side. It's easier to build the car, manufacture the car, without injuries. It presents the bottom of the car to the associate at a standing position, and associate jumps in the car and turns that key for the first time. And when that engine fires up, you know it's going out the door. From body to assembly, the showroom to the road, BMW Spartanburg products reflect the pioneering spirit that turned a small American town into a global manufacturing powerhouse. We've had a lot of celebrations, a lot of firsts here, and I think that generates a lot of excitement. Is key and crucial to BMW being successful. If Spartanburg was not competitive we would not be building these models. We enjoy the challenges and we celebrate the successes. That's bid us well for the last twenty years. 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