THE first series-produced vehicles of the new BMW 7 Series have finally rolled off the production lines. The BMW Group invested over €300 million to prepare the Dingolfing vehicle plant for production of the new 7 Series. For the first time, the BMW Group is piloting automated maneuvers within the production environment by just-made BMW 7 Series vehicles — and optimizing assembly and outbound logistics processes as a result.

Milan Nedeljkovic, BMW AG board member for production, said: “Our new BMW 7 Series is the first luxury sedan in the world to offer customers a choice between three types of drive. Whether fully electric, combustion-powered, or soon, plug-in hybrid, we have the flexible production structures and outstanding integration skills we need to manufacture such a diverse range of drives efficiently.” The new BMW 7 Series is expected to be available to customers worldwide this year.

The new BMW 7 Series is assembled on the same line as the BMW 5 Series, 8 Series and the fully electric BMW iX. “We are 100 percent flexible and able to switch between drive variants for the BMW 7 Series,” explained Christoph Schroder, plant director. “This means we can manufacture completely in line with demand for the various drives and use our plant capacity as fully as possible.”

The new BMW 7 Series builds on various technology modules of the BMW iX — not just for individual features like the onboard network architecture, user interface and driver assistance systems but also in terms of production and validation processes in assembly. Examples include the redesigned aggregate fitting station, sling loop assembly, test rigs for driver assistance systems and the new finish process, which is now even more efficient throughout, from first ignition to the vehicle dispatch area.

The e-drive components of the BMW i7 — specifically the high-voltage battery and highly integrated electric drive — are also made in Dingolfing. Like those of the BMW iX, BMW i4 and BMW iX3, they are manufactured nearby, in the BMW Group Competence Center for e-Drive Production.

Recently, the Competence Center launched two new production lines, enabling the facility to produce sufficient edrives for more than 500,000 electric cars a year. The workforce has also increased, from approximately 600 in early 2020 to over 2,300.

“With their breakthrough technologies, vehicles like the BMW 7 Series are catalysts for change — including in our plants,” said Nedeljkovic, pointing out that they involve innovations not only in the product but also in production. “Dingolfing’s transformation into a BMW iFACTORY is well underway,” added Christoph Schroder. “We have hundreds of employees working to make our plant more efficient, flexible and sustainable, with effective innovations and digitalization solutions as the key drivers of progress.”

The launch of the latest vehicle has also boosted the number of use cases of IPS-i. This digitization project uses an IT platform to converge data from a wide range of location systems and generate a digital twin in real-time of the assembly hall. From the use of smart scanners and screwdrivers to RFID-based verification of the allocation of parts to vehicles, the IPS-i platform provides the basis for locating and interconnecting every item — every vehicle, component and tool — involved in the production process. With the new BMW 7 Series, RFID-based component tracing alone has been extended to 45 different part families.

Production of the new 7 Series also uses a digital innovation with major potential for assembly and outbound logistics in BMW Group plants and distribution centers: automated driving in-plant. As part of the digitalization strategy, the AFW project will be piloted in Dingolfing from July and sees newly produced BMW 7 Series drive automatically along a 170-meter route from the first ignition and initial testing area in assembly to the finish area in the plant. The same method will be used to get vehicles from the end of the finish line to the dispatch area.

Plant Dingolfing is one of the BMW Group’s more than 30 production sites around the world and its largest in Europe. Every day around 1,600 BMW 4 Series, 5 Series, 6 Series, 7 Series, 8 Series and allnew, fully electric BMW iX vehicles roll off the production lines in car plant 02.40. In 2021, annual output totaled some 245,000 units.

The site currently employs approximately 17,000 people. It is also training about 850 apprentices for 15 professions, making it the largest training organization in the BMW Group.

Dingolfing manufactures not only cars but also vehicle components, such as pressed parts and chassis and drive systems. Located in component plant 02.20 is the BMW Group’s Center of Competence for E-Drive Production, which provides BMW vehicle plants around the world with electric motors and high-voltage batteries for plug-in hybrids as well as fully electric models. It is under constant development and currently employs over 2,300 people.