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Plant Rosslyn - more hours, more jobs, more BMW.
In early 2012, BMW South Africa announced that they were planning to introduce a third shift at the Plant Rosslyn production facility and in mid-November last year the plant officially started operating 24 hours a day.
In addition to creating more than 600 on-site jobs, the 3-shift model has significantly increased the production volumes by almost 70% to a capacity of above 80,000 units. At the same time, this shift ensures that BMW South Africa will more than double the number of BMW 3 Series Sedans exported to markets in the USA, Canada, Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Australasia.
"The introduction of a third production shift will result in many strategic advantages for our Plant, our suppliers and the industry as a whole," explains Bodo Donauer, BMW SA's Managing Director. "The fact that this increase in volume also comes with a 30% increase in employment at BMW, along with the more than 1 000 new jobs at our suppliers, is the most obvious benefit of this decision."
Since 1999, Plant Rosslyn has been building every generation of the BMW 3 Series Sedan and is responsible for production going to the important export markets. This is particularly significant because the BMW 3 Series is the most important volume-produced model by the BMW group and the biggest-selling model in the entire premium segment.
Plant Rosslyn's sustainability has been ensured by the large investments made in production technology for the new BMW 3 Series Sedan in the last few years. In conjunction with this, BMW South Africa has become the first car manufacturer in the country, since the implementation of the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP), to receive a clearance permit to export vehicles to China from the Chinese authorities.
With the introduction of the third shift, BMW Plan Rosslyn will now be responsible for meeting 25% of global BMW 3 Series demand.
