BMW 2003 Annual Report Download - page 171
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35
sales have quadrupled in the United States in the last ten years. Today, the United
States is the largest single market for the BMW Group, with sales of around
277,000 cars in 2003. The Spartanburg plant in South Carolina has contributed
decisively to this development. Opened in 1994, the Spartanburg plant today
produces the BMW Z4 and the BMW X5 exclusively for the world market. More
than 166,000 of these BMW cars rolled out of the plant on the East Coast last
year.
By integrating local suppliers, the BMW Group also benefits from purchasing
opportunities in NAFTA countries. Applying this “natural hedging”, the Company
further reduces its exposure to fluctuations in the dollar exchange rate.
Time-to-market: simultaneous rather than sequential. Being competitive means
offering the customer more and within an increasingly short time. Constant opti-
misation of product development processes contributes to accelerated series
development. That is why the BMW Group has organised its development and
operations along so-called strategic fields of innovation – with an interdisciplinary
and interdepartmental approach, from the initial idea to its eventual application in
future vehicle concepts. By working simultaneously across the board, develop-
ment tasks can be solved much more quickly: series development from the initial
idea to launch now takes about 30 months, that is 20 months less than it used to.
From a very early phase in product development, vehicle and production
concepts are generated, their economic efficiency analysed and the necessary
Loading the BMW X5 at the
plant in Spartanburg, United
States. The plant, opened in
1994, was the first major step
in the internationalisation of the
BMW Group.The Spartanburg
plant supplies the world
markets with BMW X5 and
BMW Z4 vehicles. It currently
employs around 4,700 asso-
ciates; more than 12,000 addi-
tional jobs have been created
in the BMW plant’s surround-
ings, with suppliers and service
providers, for example.