2003 Born on Sept 13th.

[chiph]

Owner's Lounge is now saying my production date is September 13th. I slipped a week!


Chip H.

[chiph]

Just realized that's Friday the 13th.

Chip H.

[MINIMENC]

The only good thing about this is that they have probably figured out a more accurate production schedule.

MiniUSA indicated to me that the date is really a week placeholder - it could be built anytime that week. Does anyone else know if this is true?

[Martin L]

It must be anyday in the week number you are given. The owners lounge just giving a Friday build date is a bit lazy of them I think. The production line runs 7 days a week so your car can be started to be built on any day I guess.
...and this worry about a Friday built car been worse is a bit of a myth as I presume the workers are on a shift pattern where their "weekends" may not coincide with ours.

Oh yeah almost forgot to mention mines a week 37 build too, not long to go now. At least I don't have the agonising boat trip stage

[chiph]

Quote:

Originally posted by MINIMENC
The only good thing about this is that they have probably figured out a more accurate production schedule.

MiniUSA indicated to me that the date is really a week placeholder - it could be built anytime that week. Does anyone else know if this is true?

Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

The BMW factory in South Carolina (where they make the Z3 and X5) arranges their schedule so that they're only painting a single color any particular day. So if you order a less-common color, you may be delayed until there's enough of them ordered to justify changing the paint (cleaning the sprayers, hoses, etc).

Chip H.

[monica]

Quote:

Originally posted by Martin L
It The production line runs 7 days a week so your car can be started to be built on any day I guess.
...and this worry about a Friday built car been worse is a bit of a myth as I presume the workers are on a shift pattern where their "weekends" may not coincide with ours.

Oh

Does the MINI plant run 7 days a week? Is there 1 shift or are they running constantly with multiple shifts?
Oh and the Friday thing is not that big a deal. The good thing is the fact that the MINI plant is not running at maximum capacity yet. I've said it before, there is a huge gap in what MINI will say at some press confrence about their "state of the art, with a capacity for blah, blah blah new facility" and what the actual line workers consider maximum capacity. Bolt? What bolt?

[chiph]

Last I heard, the factory was running 3 shifts a day, 6.5 days a week, with the half-day for equipment maintenance.

Chip H.

[monica]

Quote:

Originally posted by chiph
Last I heard, the factory was running 3 shifts a day, 6.5 days a week, with the half-day for equipment maintenance.

Chip H.

WOW You wouln't happen to know off the top of your head how many cars the line is putting out an hour?

Okay did a bit of estimating (hrs. a week, subtracted approx 2hrs. a day for food and breaks and approx. 3 wks for holidays) and it seems that they are running a real slow production. Real slow. Maybe it's some sort of British Workers Union thing but... well I know that the production at a local auto plant is putting out 40 cars an hour, back in it's PINTO heyday, I do believe it was cranking out 55 per hr. double shifts, 10hr per shift and Saturday. Ehhh it just dawned on me that way too many people out there bought FORD Pintos!!!

[Clutch Cargo]

Check out 'essentials, making the mini' from the menu up top. It's about a tour Paul Mullet took, way back in '01.

Also, there is this:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthrea...t=factory+tour
that's also very interesting.

Fair warning, btw: you'll end up on a certain Big List if you keep talking about British union labor that way! But you'll be in good company.

[gjpgjp]

Quote:

Originally posted by monica


WOW You wouln't happen to know off the top of your head how many cars the line is putting out an hour?

Okay did a bit of estimating (hrs. a week, subtracted approx 2hrs. a day for food and breaks and approx. 3 wks for holidays) and it seems that they are running a real slow production. Real slow. Maybe it's some sort of British Workers Union thing but... well I know that the production at a local auto plant is putting out 40 cars an hour, back in it's PINTO heyday, I do believe it was cranking out 55 per hr. double shifts, 10hr per shift and Saturday. Ehhh it just dawned on me that way too many people out there bought FORD Pintos!!!

To quote 'Graham Robson' author of the new mini book.

'By the time the Mini was in full production the factory at Oxford was producing 300 cars a day, this has now increased to 500 a day'

WOW!

[paulgraz]

(My first post here!)

My 03 MCS shows as scheduled for production on 9/27 right now (which my daughter tells me is Avril Lavigne's birthday).

Unfortunately, when I went to download a copy of the owners manual from the Owners Lounge, I get a message about the 03 manual not being available online at this time. :-(

An 02 manual would be close enough for me at this point in time, but they don't offer that option either.

Can anyone point me to where I can download an 02 owners manual?

Thanks!

Paul
03 MCS, Elec Blue/white, Prem/Cold/Fog/Nav

[eBrit]

Monica...if the figure of 500 a day for Cowley's production is correct then that is about 40 an hour. Another factor affecting throughput is how MANy lines are in production in the factory. After all a factory with 20 production lines and 30,000 workers might well produce more cars than one with three lines and 3000 workers...without Unions being a factor at all! Also...the "individual build/specification" policy of MINI must slow things considerably, as no true mass production..."just pass 'em down the line, boys" is possible.

I don't think they build in colour batches. To quote the excellent "Essentials" article -

Quote:

Customers are able to order their MINI in a range of colours and with the distinctive, contrasting roof colour of the MINI COOPER models in white or black. As a result there has to be a fast colour-change facility to paint each car to match the colour combination specified by the customer, as part of the comprehensive options and body derivatives which are available across the MINI range.

and there is a photo to prove it.


Does anyone know the current workforce and number of lines in operation at Cowley?

eBrit

PS My Cooper S is being built more or less RIGHT NOW. Whhhhooooooopy!!!

[eBrit]

Oops forgot the piccie (courtest of the Essentials Article)

[chiph]

eBrit -

That sure enough shows more than one color configuration on the line! I was wrong!

Did you notice that there seems to be another assembly line in the background?

Chip H.

[eBrit]

Hi chiph...

Hmmm, I think you're right...it would be nice to know more.

Here's another quote..

Quote:

To meet these production requirements Mini-Mix and Micro-Mix paint systems have been installed, which result in fast colour changes between individual bodyshells, eliminating the need to "batch" paint a number of cars in the same colour before switching colours.

However, this does seem to contradict the basic approach MINI use of immersing the whole car in a bath of paint !!!

Quote:

This is followed by the electropaint stage where the body is immersed in a large tank of paint with an electric charge applied, typically 300 volts and 800 amps. This causes the paint to be attracted to the whole structure, inside and out and is critical in the corrosion proofing of the vehicle. This form of painting is very efficient and more than 90 percent of all paint is used directly on the car. The residual paint is returned to the main tank and washing liquids are cleaned and reused. The car is then baked in an oven to cure the paint.

Can anyone explain Perhaps the paint shop is so darned big (it was the second biggest building project in Britain in 1997 next to the Millenium Dome!!!) that they've got a MINI sized tank for every colour. Now THAT must be a site!

Come on MINI ...TALK TO US Your thousands of most loyal fans, your best salespeople, and your coaches on all matters MINI for your dealers (that us, folks, the contributors to MINI2 ) would love to feel MINI has human staff as well as 229 robots

eBrit