BMW’s Leipzig plant wins automotive lean production award for exterior components

BMW Group Plant Leipzig’s Exterior Components section, TEK, has scooped the prestigious Automotive Lean Production Award in the category for Lean Digital Transformation. It now ranks among Europe’s top production units for implementing lean production coupled with digital innovations – and sets new standards in the manufacturing sector.

Organisationally, Exterior Components (‘Technologie Exterieur Komponenten’, TEK) forms part of the Purchasing and Supplier Network division at Leipzig. Its 450 employees produce over a million injection-moulded plastic exterior parts a year, including bumpers, sills and spoilers. These are supplied not just to Plant Leipzig but also to BMW Group Plants Dingolfing and Regensburg.

Explaining their decision, the jury praised the TEK for its consistent pursuit of the TEK 2028 vision. This is the driving force behind the redesign of the production system and will see the primary focus shift from car sets to large-scale just-in-sequence (JIS) production for the BMW Group. The jury cited the combination of lean principles and progressive digital approaches as being a key factor for success.

Christoph Theiselmann, head of the TEK, was delighted with the award: “I’m extremely proud of this important stage win and would like to thank all our employees for their outstanding team performance. This award is confirmation, from the highest level, of the significant progress the TEK has made on our journey of transformation. Going forward, a number of major steps still lie ahead, and enhancing and optimising innovations and efficiency will remain our key focus.”

The jury were particularly impressed by the variety of digital applications being implemented in the TEK, in areas such as data analytics, the planning and optimisation of assembly workplaces, quality assurance, anticipatory maintenance and virtual factory planning and commissioning – an excellent combination of top-down and bottom-up initiatives.

The eighteenth Lean Production Awards are presented by Agamus Consult and the industry magazine Automobil Produktion. The official award ceremony will take place on November 26-27, 2024 in Palmela, Portugal