westcoast550

Member ipp tells me that tint can be factory ordered in Europe, does anyone know if this is available for North America, specifically Canada....... ??
Thanks

jmsod

Not available in the US... not sure about Canada.

tuco

Not aware of it in Canada either, W550.

westcoast550

HMMM ! The logistics of building these cars must be quite amazing given all the combinations and permuations......... they must have bulk builds for efficiency or something that streamlines the efficiency of production and then have regional mins/maxes for options........... I'm sure someone here knows more about this...

Thanks and Cheers

poleposition

I will soon as I'm scheduled for a tour of the Dingolfing plant where all of our beloved E60's are built during my Euro delivery trip. I'll be sure to take notes and tell you all about it.

westcoast550

That's great ! How do they segment production by customer country or do they !Hey maybe I'll do a Euro Delivery !!! HMMM !! ??

DRANGED

Euro Delivery? You're probably gonna need a navigator...

JSpira

Actually, each car on the line can be totally different than the one preceding or following. There is no batching for regional differences and such. In fact a LHD can can and does follow a RHD car.

Hawkwing

Interesting statement from contributor JSPIRA that "there is no batching" - every automobile production plant that I've visited or have been involved with in Europe/Asia/Japan use build 'sequences' - this is by name a term for rules that batch 'likes'. Sequencing is used to allow for the variability in demand (Orders) and efficient build requirements to meet delivery targets.

For those interested my view from experience of automated vehicle production:

Vehicle production is highly automated and highly complex; production build sequences that continuously change from one single vehicle to the next with no rules would not make for an efficient plant. Typically for a plant to be efficient (low costs) the production sequence will mostly be influenced by a local ?pacing ?constraint(s) e.g. resource(s), this would, in all the plants I'm aware of, be a key resource such as the painting booths, therefore paint colour/finish is a key driver to the production build sequence and therefore the overall plant efficiency. To maximise production automobile plants that I?m aware of sequence (batch) colours to reduce paint booth set-up and clean down i.e. every change of colour takes time; also it is wasteful of paint and under many countries laws (Europe and Japan) must be reclaimed and not dumped in any way, this action also constrains costs.

To follow on herein is an example of an issue faced ?its desirable to paint all of a single vehicle?s body work from the same batch controlled paint mix, this means all panels including doors and trunk lids etc. When done this way these panels travel with the body onto the assembly lines, here they are often stored for a short period on moving overhead/under-floor stores which are used to manage delivery of the panels to the assembly line ? e.g. when the vehicle body reaches the point at where they are fitted on the assembly line they must be delivered automatically, as the requirement is just-in-time ? To have indifferent plan sequence (batch rules) of build, i.e. a randomized building of vehicles, would place great strain on efficiency.

When the vehicle moves to the assembly line itself it?s another matter as to what sequence is followed ? it?s possible, and often the means done in my experience, to produce batches of painted bodies for a mixed model production build e.g. in BMW terms e60/e61 Monaco Blue Sedans and Tourer bodies, and store these - They won?t in my experience store them for too long (a day at most perhaps, most only for xx hours - hence the batch size is important (the batch size can vary as they are influenced by a number of factors including the order demand) - Re-sequencing will occur and varying coloured bodies will then be sent for assembly under a new set of sequence rules to suit other optimization rules. Many factors influence sequences i.e. plant layout, demand (orders are batched), vehicle design, mixed model build etc.

The exact build details, inclusive of options, is used to sequence a vehicle plant?s production build in my experience - re-sequencing the assembly line build as described in my previous example to help manage build type volumes is used - however, for cost and space reasons work in progress is limited.

At the stage where the vehicle body is RD tagged it takes on its own personality containing all details about the build options etc. ? this will trigger/control the systems as to what tasks are to be performed on that vehicle during its assembly - the vehicle is in motion until it completes its build. A vehicle can be built from essentially scratch to driven off an assembly in less than 20 hours.

westcoast550

I think what Hawkwing is saying makes complete sense for controlling quality and costs............ I have been advised by my dealer that it is NOT possible to do factory tint for my order yet oue Euro friends can get it ? I still would love to know why ?

Cheers

PS, Hawkwing , thanks for you informative perspective