In-Plant Training At the BMW Chennai Factory greetings to all my fellow bhpians. its almost after 3-4 months that i am making a post on the forum.
After my participation in BAJA SAEINDIA 2012, my next venture was an in-plant training with BMW. As of now, its been just 3 days that i have been there. I'll make the post in a day wise order.
As of now the production of cars has been stopped at the plant as they have no place to store the produce. The warehouse is full of vehicles and the transporters are unable to ship them as quick.
At the same time, the expansion of the plant is going on simultaneously. As the production is stopped, i am working with the quality control department. DAY 1 (4th June 2012)
This was THE DAY for me as i was waiting for my training since past 4 months. I was there at 8:40 am and my appointment with the HR was at 9 am. And i wont forget to mention that there was some kind of shoot going on in the plant itself. So the HR was busy with them. I was called in and was asked to wait at the reception. Meanwhile all the formalities were being done. Though bit slow, but i was ok with the pace with which it was going as i was one of the lucky people who actually got a chance to be there.
Finally at about 12:30 pm, the formalities were done and i was asked to go for lunch which they offered in the plant itself. At 2 pm, i was finally in the plant. Sadly all the machines were at rest due to the halt in production. In the mean while my mentor, Mr. lakshman sridhar gave me a detailed tour of the entire plant, starting from the parts storage area to the finishing and inspection line.
With the end of this tour, we decided to call it a day as there was no more work left. DAY 2 (5th june 2012)
Again, being very punctual about the timings, i was in the plant at 8:50 am and reported to Mr. Sridhar. He sent me to a worker who was currently working on the all new BMW 328d. So he asked me to work with him the entire day. I am actually lucky to have had a taste of the vehicle even before its on the roads. So we started with the ECOS machine where in the initial and basic tests are done to the vehicle. It took him about 30 minutes at that station. He carefully did as the computer guided him to do. There were checks to the doors, boot lid, horn, lights, the computers, wipers, locks. And this was being feeded to the computer through OBD. Next he went to the headlights alignment station where in the beam of the projectors was aligned with a very basic equipment produced by bosch (i forgot the name). Next we went to the rollers where in the brakes and the ABS were tested. The car was taken to about 140-150 km/hr and accordingly the tests were done. By this time we had spent almost 2 hours with the vehicle as small adjustments were done during the process. The pace was slow as not many vehicles were there to be worked upon. Then it was time for the road test. The engineer took the vehicle to a test track which is built in the complex itself. During the testing, there was a small judder in the right side B pillar of the vehicle. The sound was so little that it could hardly be heard. But still, its BMW, and they need to meet up to the expectations. The car was put back to rework and the B pillar was worked upon. the cause of the judder was a clip that wasnt put tightly. With this we had a technically perfect vehicle with us. Next was the water leakage test, final inspection and badging. This took us another 2 hours and finally we were with a perfect 328d ready to be shipped. With this i was more than satisfied with a work. Soon i got the order to go back home. And in no time i was out of the plant. DAY 3 (6TH june 2012)
The process of punctuality still persisted and i was back to the shop floor in time. My today's work was very similar to what i did yesterday. The only difference was that i had a 520d this time. All i can say is that the process went very smoothly and we were able to complete it in time.
With this i have narrated my journey till now. So as the days pass, i'll keep the thread upgraded with the happenings. Cameras are not allowed inside the plant so unfortunately no pics. But still for the love of cars, i'll try to ask for permission to take a few snaps of the shop floor.
So please stay tuned and do post in your suggestions and comments about the vehicles so that i can put it forward in front of the people at BMW.
With this i end my post. waiting for comments.
Last edited by Rehaan : 8th June 2012 at 17:49.
Reason: Adding a little formatting to aid readability ;)
|