Post by ChrisM on Dec 9, 2023 17:59:08 GMT
Having found out that there was a factory tour available during my stay last week, it seeemed rude not to pay the few quid and sign up for a factory tour of the BMW motorcycle factory in Berlin.
Last year they produced more than 200,000 motorbikes on this site. They have a factory in China where the 2-cylinder engines are made but all other bike engines are made in Berlin and exported as necessary. In general terms if I recall correctly apart from the factory in China and an assembly plant in Brasil where CKD kits are assembled, all the bikes are made in Berlin on the one site where the proximity of other buildings means that expansion is not possible. There are 4 "lines" where a complete mix of bikes can be built and going round the line there was certainly a huge visible difference in the type/style of bikes going down the lines. No cameras and no photos were permitted under pain of having your phone's entire memory remotely wiped of all data (and your camera's memory card confiscated). Free lockers were provided at the start point at the main gate just next to the shop. The tour finished in the small on-site "museum" at another gate and we then had to walk 5 minutes back in the snow and ice to retrieve our bags (which contained hat, gloves etc.....).
The visitor group was about 25-strong, somehow mainly Scots it seemed, and our guide was also a Scot who used to work there, appeared to be semi-retired and as well as giving the tours, he also arranges some of the factory-run tours in Germany for customers. With no particular reason to hurry the 90 minutes ran over to just about 2 hours and was a worthwhile item on my visit to Christmas Markets.
My favourite purchase of the week is this metal "tankard"
Probably not too many of them in the UK.
For anyone who is a manufacturing engineer or a keen biker (and particularly if you have a BMW bike as you will get special parking in the factory if you arrive on it), I highly recommend the tour
Last year they produced more than 200,000 motorbikes on this site. They have a factory in China where the 2-cylinder engines are made but all other bike engines are made in Berlin and exported as necessary. In general terms if I recall correctly apart from the factory in China and an assembly plant in Brasil where CKD kits are assembled, all the bikes are made in Berlin on the one site where the proximity of other buildings means that expansion is not possible. There are 4 "lines" where a complete mix of bikes can be built and going round the line there was certainly a huge visible difference in the type/style of bikes going down the lines. No cameras and no photos were permitted under pain of having your phone's entire memory remotely wiped of all data (and your camera's memory card confiscated). Free lockers were provided at the start point at the main gate just next to the shop. The tour finished in the small on-site "museum" at another gate and we then had to walk 5 minutes back in the snow and ice to retrieve our bags (which contained hat, gloves etc.....).
The visitor group was about 25-strong, somehow mainly Scots it seemed, and our guide was also a Scot who used to work there, appeared to be semi-retired and as well as giving the tours, he also arranges some of the factory-run tours in Germany for customers. With no particular reason to hurry the 90 minutes ran over to just about 2 hours and was a worthwhile item on my visit to Christmas Markets.
My favourite purchase of the week is this metal "tankard"
Probably not too many of them in the UK.
For anyone who is a manufacturing engineer or a keen biker (and particularly if you have a BMW bike as you will get special parking in the factory if you arrive on it), I highly recommend the tour