Process Confirmation Standard for Kaizen at BMW Dingolfing—Part 4

BMW Group Dingolfing Plant Product Portfolio
BMW Group Dingolfing plant product portfolio

Work standards are key to kaizen, and their correct use requires process confirmation. The BMW Group Dingolfing plant does an outstanding job with this process confirmation, driving their continuous improvement. This gives BMW automotive plants an outstanding performance on par with Toyota. In this last post on the series on the process confirmation standards at BMW Dingolfing, we dig deeper into the confirmation for the work standard documents and the digital displays used to manage the product variety coming down the line.

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Process Confirmation Standard for Kaizen at BMW Dingolfing—Part 3

Checklist in industryProcess confirmation is essential for maintaining standards, which are essential for continuous improvement. In my previous posts I introduced the process confirmation standard at the BMW Group Dingolfing plant, which helps BMW to achieve efficiency on par with Toyota. We already looked at the verification of the material supply standards and 5S. In this post I will talk more about the Gemba standards for the actual work. They demand improvement ideas directly from the shop floor, which is the best way to have fast kaizen cycles toward operational excellence. Read on!

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Process Confirmation Standard for Kaizen at BMW Dingolfing—Part 2

BMW LogoIn my last post I introduced the process confirmation standard at the BMW Group Dingolfing plant, which helps BMW to achieve efficiency on par with Toyota. In this post I will talk more about the actual process confirmation checklist, starting with a brief overview, followed by a deep dive into the first two sections of the checklist. Read on!

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Process Confirmation Standard for Kaizen at BMW Dingolfing—Part 1

Aerial Picture BMW Group Dingolfing PlantContinuous improvement in lean works through work standards. Improving the standards improves your processes. However, all of this is for naught if the standard is not followed. In this series of blog posts I will look in more detail at how the BMW Group Dingolfing plant (a company on par with Toyota in terms of efficiency) does process confirmation on the shop floor. And, maybe even more important, how they drive the whole improvement process through the front-line workers on the shop floor using this process confirmation.

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The Grand Tour of German Automotive—BMW Berlin Motorbikes

The last plant of BMW I visited in Germany was in Spandau, Berlin. This was different from BMW Munich and Leipzig. For one, it makes motorbikes, not cars. But its performance was also not as stellar as the best of (German) benchmark plants Leipzig and Munich. But despite some issues, it still performed on an equal level with German car plants. Let’s dig deeper.

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The Grand Tour of German Automotive—BMW Leipzig

BMW Leipzig Aerial Photo
BMW Leipzig with lots of space

The second BMW plant I visited was in Leipzig. This modern greenfield plant had a very good material flow, where especially the finger line impressed me a lot. In terms of efficiency it was the best-performing plant in Germany, shortly after Munich, and on par with Toyota. It was also exceptionally clean. The only flaw I saw was that they have the order to never stop the line… which goes against my lean philosophy. But read on.

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The Grand Tour of German Automotive—BMW Munich

BMW Munich from TV Tower
BMW Munich plant surrounded by Munich

The Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, or short BMW, is a maker of luxury vehicles, sport cars, and motorcycles. As part of my Grand Tour of German Automotive I visited their plants in Munich and Leipzig, and was quite impressed. In my view, it these are the best-performing automotive plants in Germany, and close to the performance of Toyota in Japan. I also visited their motorbike plant in Berlin, which was a bit different. Let me show you what I saw, starting with Munich.

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The BMW Finger Line Layout

As part of my grand tour of German automotive, I visited the BMW plant in Leipzig. As of now, this is my second most favorite German automotive plant, after BMW in Munich. I will talk more about this quite well-organized and indeed beautiful plant in a later post series, but in this post I’m going to explain their very interesting and novel way to set up their assembly line. They call this the finger structure or comb structure (Fingerstruktur or Kammstruktur) because the line layout looks like the fingers of a hand or the teeth of a comb. I found this approach quite unique, and hence would like to share it with you.

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