Plant Swindon: supreme precision in steel pressing. Plant Swindon some 70 kilometres west of Oxford has been making body panels since 1954. Today the workforce of 1,100 associates makes 90 per cent of the pressings and 80 per cent of the pre-assembly body components such as the lids and doors for MINI Assembly at Plant Oxford. And since 2005, the BMW Group has invested some GBP 60 million (Euro 88 million Euro) in the production of MINI at Plant Swindon.
The Pressings Production Area is made up of 19 pressing lines with a total of 50 individual presses. All presses have been thoroughly revised, automated and equipped with the latest electronic control systems for production of the MINI, with press forces ranging from 400 to 5,000 tonnes.
The appropriate press is used in each case according to the size and
complexity of the pressing involved, the front and rear lids on the MINI, for example, being pressed into shape on the longest pressing line with a total of six pressing stages, proceeding from a flat piece of

steel plate all the way to the fully pressed, moulded and shaped outer skin. Particularly large body components on the MINI Clubman such as the doors, the roof with its two Dune Lines, and the side panels go through two four-stage large-area presses with a pressing force of 5,000 tonnes.
In all, more than 130 welding and handling robots are used in the highly automated production of complete body components such as the doors and lids, 20 of these robots building the Clubdoor and the split-door for the MINI Clubman.
Plant Hams Hall: high-tech engine technology for the MINI. Compared with the other two pillars within the British BMW Group
Production Triangle, the Engine Plant in Hams Hall is very “young”: Built near Birmingham in 2001, Hams Hall is the BMW Group's Competence Centre for the production of four-cylinder gasoline engines displacing up to two litres.