Regional BMW Rosslyn: Wins JD Power Platinum; Gets New X3 Production

[martinbo]

Summary
- Dispels the notion that BMWs made in South Africa are inferior in quality
- Focuses on the opportunities to be found in Africa's continued growth
- Potential expansion of plant announcement expected today (Monday, November 16th)
- Key for Africa is to foster its own generation of engineers and technologists

The CEO of BMW SA, Tim Abbott says the JD Power Platinum Quality Plant Award won by the Rosslyn plant is the first for any manufacturer in South Africa and the highest for any BMW plant in the world. The vehicles produced at Rosslyn are exported to the United States and South Korea.

He says BMW is enjoying excellent relations with the South African government and workforce, and intends to stay in South Africa for decades to come. Abbott says his company is ahead of the game most of the time with its innovative approach and investment in its people.

The CEO of BMW SA says they’re going to build market share in East and West Africa and will announce a new programme next week to support their intentions.

Tim Abbott is the CEO of BMW SA. Thanks again Tim, for joining me and having a chat with us. We appreciate it.

It’s great to be here Tim, and great to be here in South Africa. I’ve been here a year. I came from the UK, relocated down here with my family and it’s a journey already. The year I’ve been here, I’ve learned so much about the country but we love every moment of it.

I invited you to talk to us because your plant out in Rosslyn, Pretoria has done very well – winning the JD Quality Plant of the Year Award. This is an international award right, and something to celebrate. You must be very proud of that. Tell me, what is the award all about and what do you attribute the success of your plant to?

Well, this is the first time the JD Power Platinum Award has ever been won by BMW in any plant around the world. What it mean is Plant Rosslyn for BMW produces and builds the best cars in the world across any brand (so it’s any make of car).

This is a survey that’s done with many thousands of consumers who give feedback about the quality of their vehicle and Plant Rosslyn came out on top. We won the Gold Award back in 2002. We have just won the Platinum Award – first time for BMW. What we put it down to is all that people.

It’s about the people at Rosslyn who give their commitment to the brand. We call it ‘a passion for perfection’. That’s our mantra. Every day, we look at cars. When I’m at the plant, we pull cars off the production line. We look at the quality.

We analyse and the end result now is we’re building the best 3-Series in the world.

The customers who get our cars (and we export to America, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and India) are getting the best built BMW’s. It’s a great accolade for us. It’s a great accolade for South Africa and it says that we can do it.

For a multinational company such as BMW, what do you look for when you make an investment in the country? In this instance, you are in South Africa. What are the elements about the South African system that attracted you to come to South Africa, stay in South Africa and going forward, that you expect us to retain/improve on?

Well, the BMW plant here at Rosslyn is the oldest plant outside of Germany. Forty-two years ago, we came here – way before Apartheid. Why did we come to South Africa? Well, there’s a very stable workforce – no question about that – and a very loyal workforce. That really helps.

Also, Government has given us a framework to work within, and it’s called the APDP program that helps support us in terms of the production we do here.

The great news is that last week, the Minister of the DTI (Minister Davis) confirmed the continuity of that program through to 2020, which means it’s supporting the auto industry and that means jobs. If you look at Rosslyn then today, we have 3 500 people in the BMW family. We have 25 000 people in the BMW network.

We have 42 000 people in the supply chain so those are all people and families who are relying on BMW but that could only happen with a framework where Government recognises that the auto industry is important. If you look at lessons learned…look at Australia.

They had a similar program. They’ve pulled out of that program. By next year, every manufacturer will have pulled out of Australia so it’s a non-automotive country. South Africa mustn’t follow that route because there are far too many people relying on this industry.

It’s one of the biggest exporters into Europe. It’s part of the AGOA program [as you know] to the States, Fifty percent of the cars we sell are exported to the States because we’re in a great framework.

We have a great workforce, great commitment, a supportive Government, a framework around that, and so we intend to be here for another 42 years I assure you, or even longer.

Source: http://www.fin24.com/BizNews/sa-les...ment-need-local-engineers-not-german-20151112

 

[martinbo]

And here's the big news:

http://www.fin24.com/Finweek/Business-and-economy/bmw-invests-a-whopping-r6bn-in-sa-20151116

BMW invests a whopping R6bn in SA

Johannesburg - In what is probably one of the biggest investments in the local automotive industry, BMW Group on Monday announced that it will invest a total of R6bn at its Rosslyn Plant in Pretoria in the coming years.

Affirming its long-term commitment to South Africa, the investment will enable Plant Rosslyn to produce the next generation BMW X3, which will be sold locally and exported to various countries.

Speaking to finweek Tim Abbott, Managing Director of BMW Group South Africa says that production of the next generation BMW X3, which will replace local production of the BMW3 Series sedan, will allow for greater support of local suppliers through increased localisation of components, expected to be greater than that of the BMW 3 Series produced at Rosslyn.

“It is very much about local content with local companies, trying to support local BBBEE companies and start-up companies to supply into the plant. We are here to support South Africa and the people of South Africa and we want to do this in a local way.”

“28% of BMW production to date is X models,” says Abbott. We only produce the X models at Spartanburg in the USA and take it as a great compliment that the BMW X3 will be built for the first time outside of America, says Abbot.

“The reason we have been awarded the production of the X3 is because of the quality of the cars we build, the consistency of the workforce and the competitive situation with APDP.

“In Africa, we have more opportunity with the BMW X3 than we would have with the BMW 3 Series sedan, even though the 3 Series is still the core model for BMW and will continue to be so. But in trying to match demand with production, we believe that longer term, the X-model, especially the BMW X3 will have a huge demand in South Africa and neighbouring countries.

“Rosslyn is a two-shift plant. Because of world demand for the 3 Series we went to a three-shift which expires next year in 2016. We have the capacity here to build the same number of X3’s, if not more than the 3 Series but that will depend on take-up from markets around the world.

Exports of the X3 are expected to be a huge success. “There will be opportunities to export the car to other countries in Africa which we currently don’t do with the 3 Series,” says Abbott.

A big step last week in the partnership between government and business was Minister Rob Davies announcing the continuation of the Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP) to 2020 that also encourages more investment into South Africa with smaller production companies.

“It’s good news for us because it means more suppliers that we can share with going forward. Minister Davies has made it clear that in his opinion the APDP will go past 2020.

“He sees automotive as being one of the key industries in South Africa. We will work with him past 2020 but I am sure the framework will still be competitive going forward. That’s why we have invested R6bn here in South Africa; R3bn in plant restructuring and R3bn for launch costs, suppliers and training.”

Preparation of the plant for the production of the X3 will commence next year while simultaneously continuing production of the 3 Series for the current lifecycle. Production of the BMW 3 Series Sedan will be allocated to other plants in the BMW Group production network.

A bit sad to see that bastion of the BMW range no longer made in SA.

But, I suppose getting the X3 is a decent enough accolade.

 

[Hofmeister]

This is great news for BMW and SA, but he's wrong, BMW Dingolfing won the Platinum award in 1998.
http://www.automation.siemens.com/w...audesBMW5ermitTotallyIntegratedAutomation.xml

 

[ACE]

Rosslyn quality is good but the real reasons production is allocated to South Africa are :

1. BMW can claim 25% import duty rebate on cars manufactured in SA against cars sold in SA.
2. South African Rand has weakened substantially against the Euro. Same reason Brazil was allocated production and Russia is being eyed up for investment.

SA would be quite uncompetitive without these factors, especially when you consider that electricity and labour are less reliable in SA than some of the other potential locations.