Getting to grips with motorbikes in Berlin - IMechE and Royal Aeronautical Society

On Friday 29 June, an inter-institutional group of 20 engineers embarked on a technical visit around the BMW Motorcycle production facility in Berlin Spandau. Tom Probert guides us through the highlights of the visit.

The group were a mix of members from the IMechE and the Royal Aeronautical Society, plus a number of prospective members coming from all across Germany. The tour met on a sunny Friday afternoon at the main gate of the Motorradwerk in Berlin Spandau before being led to the Visitor Centre on-site where they were shown an introductory video about the history of BMW Motorcycles and of the Spandau plant. There was also the opportunity to sit on a number of different models – increasing the risk of few members leaving with their wallets significantly lighter!

The tour began in the Machining Shop where they saw the machining and inspection of core engine components such as engine cases, crank shafts and connecting rods before continuing to Engine Assembly to see these parts built into up to 500 engines per day. The group were then shown two production lines, seeing bikes assembled from piece-part to dispatch-ready in 500m through ‘just in time’ manufacturing as well as a number of ‘Industry 4.0’ elements. It was interesting to see how each bike is mounted onto an automated robotic stand which raises the bike to the operator-specific ergonomic optimal working height for the operation while continuously moving along the production line. The visit also included seeing how every motorcycle is individually ridden by an operator on a rolling road to check the functionality of every component and feature. They are then automatically delivered to the wrapping station and then to the dispatch warehouse which delivers the roughly 100,000 motorcycles per year to locations around the world.

After a thoroughly enjoyable and informative technical visit, the group then headed to the nearby Brauhaus Spandau for some well-deserved food and drink in the beer garden. This gave a good opportunity to network and get to know other engineers from a very diverse range of backgrounds, companies and industries.