| Author |
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Rfischer
| | Posted on Thursday, August 06, 2009 - 08:36 am: | 
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Collaboration with Kymco. German designs & engineering; mfr'd in Korea. Also lots of rapid-prototyping machinery used in the design process which cuts development costs and time. |
Jaimec
| | Posted on Thursday, August 06, 2009 - 08:56 am: |
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Hmmmmm... as far as I know, the only BMW with a Korean sourced engine is the G650GS. I'll have to go look again. |
Bbbob
| | Posted on Thursday, August 06, 2009 - 02:45 pm: |
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Along with the G650GS the G450X engine is also sourced to (actually not Korea) China. I'm looking thru all the BMW dealer stuff on the S1000RR engine, as soon as I find something, I'll post. |
Jaimec
| | Posted on Thursday, August 06, 2009 - 03:47 pm: |
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Once the Berlin Wall fell, BMW had to find other sources of cheap labor. They used to have everything manufactured in the DDR. |
46champ
| | Posted on Thursday, August 06, 2009 - 06:14 pm: |
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He looks at Jaimec's post with wonder...Did BMW actually source parts from the DDR? Enquiring minds want to know. |
Nik
| | Posted on Thursday, August 06, 2009 - 06:39 pm: |
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Along with the G650GS the G450X engine is also sourced to (actually not Korea) China. I'm looking thru all the BMW dealer stuff on the S1000RR engine, as soon as I find something, I'll post.
Kymco is in the Republic of China aka Taiwan. |
Jaimec
| | Posted on Thursday, August 06, 2009 - 09:44 pm: |
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Yup. They did. I thought EVERYONE knew that? Built in source of cheap labor. Once the wall fell, they had to get paid the same as the West German workers, so there went that deal. That's about the time BMW started using Showa suspension, instead of the Boge units they'd been using. Not that there was anything wrong with that. |
Rfischer
| | Posted on Friday, August 07, 2009 - 08:52 am: |
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BMW cars [M-B too] had DDR-made stuff; Slovakia as well. |
Bbbob
| | Posted on Friday, August 07, 2009 - 10:59 am: |
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After looking through all the dealer literature we have on the S1000RR the dealer owner & I could not find anything stating were the engine is being built. The owner sent an email last night to BMW NA to find out. We got our answer this morning; the engine is built in the Berlin plant. |
Rfischer
| | Posted on Friday, August 07, 2009 - 11:03 am: |
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Ask 'em where the hard parts - crank, rods, cases, etc. - are being made. Not Berlin, I wager. |
Bbbob
| | Posted on Friday, August 07, 2009 - 11:51 am: |
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I'm sure there's some truth to that. Is there a mass produced bike or an automobile out there that is 100% locally sourced parts? |
Rfischer
| | Posted on Friday, August 07, 2009 - 01:30 pm: |
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Not that I am aware of. The hard parts are very expensive when done in Europe, Japan, or here. For example, a small-block forged Ford crank made here costs $800; the same part from China is $250.
If a car/bike company is prepared to put the technical and QA procedures in place to monitor production, Chinese quality can be comparable.
We [Highland Motors AB] have a JV with a Chinese scooter mfr. to make Highland designed engines for the domestic Chinese market. We had a technical group living there to train and advise while our engineering plans and drawings were converted to hard parts and complete motors. 3 years later the motors made there are, in the words of our lead project guy, "as good as made in Sweden."
I'm confident BMW has done all that is required to make sure that whatever they source in Asia is as good as "made by BMW". They would not risk the brand by doing otherwise. Which not to say BMW Motorrad hasn't itself turned out some lousy product [Think mid-70's R75/5 or more recent K1200 bikes] but they are very aware of the potential for damage to the brand. |
Bbbob
| | Posted on Friday, August 07, 2009 - 02:31 pm: |
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It all comes down to management & process (imagine talking about that on a Buell site?)... |
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