Welcome to BMW Group Plant Berlin.

Every day around 300 engine specialists work in two shifts, assembling more than 600 different components and small parts to produce up to 700 high-performance engines. Our boxer engines (air-and-oil and air-and-water-cooled), inline four- and six-cylinder units and electric motors are made on five assembly lines. Depending on the type, each power unit takes between 90 and 250 minutes to produce.

To ensure the engines are of suitable quality, they undergo combined cold and transmission testing. This involves checking the torque, rpm, noise emissions and various pressure tests while the engine is running. We also leak-test each one to ensure it is completely tight. Because we leave nothing to chance.

Besides classic series production, we also have a small team dedicated to exclusive motorsport engines. In competitions like the World Superbike Championship or 24-hour races, the demands are extreme, and engines have to withstand enormous stresses and strains. We build ours by hand, in our workshop. What’s more, after they have performed on the track, we carry out a detailed analysis of each one and then relay what we learn back to series development.

The machining shop lays the foundation for each individual bike – because it’s here that core engine components such as the casing, cylinder heads, crankshaft, pistons and driveshaft are made.

Every day, about 4,000 parts are produced in three-shift operations. The machining shop is located in a unique building with rounded roofs that was built in 1914 – but now houses state-of-the-art machinery. More than 140 CNC-controlled machining devices grind, mill and, finally, polish components with absolute flexibility and precision. The components are designed for tight tolerances of up to 1 micrometre (a human hair is about 60 micrometres thick!) and constantly quality-tested using superior testing and measuring technologies.

The machining shop supplies components not only to engine production at Plant Berlin but also to sites across BMW Motorrad’s international production network.

Plant Berlin has been welding frames, swing arms and fuel tanks since 1968. Today our highly trained team work alongside state-of-the-art robot systems.

The robots weld together multiple individual parts to make tanks for models such as the BMW R 1300 GS and BMW S 1000 RR. The finishing touches are added by a team member. A single worker handles up to 50 fuel tanks a day, the biggest challenge being to do a good job of welding the aluminium, which is just 1.5 millimetres thick – because even the tiniest error would mean a leaky tank. When it comes to welding, we operate in the Champions League!

Once tested for leaks, the tank is sent on to the paint shop for the next stage of its manufacture.

Bike assembly starts with what’s known as the “marriage”, which is where the frame and engine are bolted together. Next come the various other components, from swing arm to tank. Each bike is made to customer specification, be it with heated grips for year-round riders or lugged tyres for offroad aficionados.

The BMW Motorrad plant in Berlin makes as many as 900 bikes and e-scooters a day on four basic assembly lines and four finish lines. The allocation of the various bikes to the different production lines is a complex challenge and determined by the model series, product scope, volume, cycle times and capacity.

Before a bike has its own two wheels to move on, it travels through the plant on flexible conveyors. Mounted on special hooks known as C-hooks – because of their shape – the bikes seem almost to float along the assembly line. Our latest assembly area uses a driverless transport system that navigates with the help of induction coils. Both systems automatically position the bikes at the right ergonomic working height for workers to carry out their job.

All the data that’s needed to make a bike to order – such as torque specifications and settings – is sent to the various assembly stations automatically. Depending on the model, it takes between 220 and 360 minutes to assemble the 2,000 or so parts and components into a ready-to-ride bike. During that time, each bike is checked for over 1,000 parameters and tested on the dynamometer.

The paint lines in Plant Berlin handle almost every fairing part automatically, by robot. The robots work super-fast and paint up to 10,000 bike parts in 160 different shapes in over 20 different colours a day. The system is designed so that various sizes and geometries of component can be painted in variable order. But the expertise of experienced specialists remains crucial: a steady hand is essential, especially when it comes to applying the traditional pinstripes and various tape applications to the tanks and side fairings.

In addition to the two paint lines, there is also a powder-coating line which applies solvent-free powder paint to frames and aluminium tanks.

For production to run smoothly and customers to get their bikes as promised, we need materials to be in the right place at the right time. Every day, from bolts to tanks, about a million individual parts are moved around the plant. When we commissioned our new supply centre, we thoroughly reviewed all our logistics processes and are now proud to operate one of the most cutting-edge logistics centres in our industry.

The centrepiece is the high-bay warehouse which, at 36 metres high, is visible from afar. It accommodates 32,000 parts containers, which are stowed and retrieved fully automatically and taken to assembly by tugger trains. The trains follow a strict timetable to ensure just-in-time delivery.

About 80 percent of the bikes we make are exported – to over 130 countries worldwide. Those shipped within Europe are packed into steel crates which can be reused, saving some 7,000 tonnes of material a year. Bikes for overseas markets are packed in wood and cardboard crates and loaded onto trucks.

Brake disc production at the BMW Group: every year around 200 employees manufacture some four million brake discs for BMW Group cars. That makes about 18,000 a day on average – and means a BMW, MINI and even a Rolls-Royce will have a little bit of Berlin in it. Our facility is now a centre of innovation for lightweight brake discs, thanks to major investments, with six cutting-edge, automated production lines making over 80 different types of disc. Each disc weighs between 5 and 21 kilogrammes and is subject to final approval and quality control by the employees themselves.

At BMW Motorrad, constant quality management ensures products meet our stringent production and quality requirements. Ahead of market launch, new models are put to the acid test in our launch analysis centre and optimised so that we can be sure they meet the strictest of quality standards from the start of series production.

Once production is underway, we still leave nothing to chance: every engine has to pass a combined cold and transmission test to ensure its mechanics and tightness. The full spectrum of vehicle electronics in every bike undergoes a complex run of tests in assembly so that even the tiniest fault can be detected in advance. From the ABS system, brakes and clutch to the transmission, lights and chassis safety, every BMW Motorrad bike undergoes a final check on the dynamometer to ensure it works perfectly when the customer gets it.

Cutting-edge technologies such as VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality) and AI (artificial intelligence) support the team in the daily work and help us fulfil our stringent quality standards.