When BMW in Munich (Germany) decided to develop a car in Torino (Italy) that would be produced in Oxford (UK), there were a number of predicted scenarios, expected positive and feared negative effects.

It was not the first time that a major automotive OEM decided to outsource the complete development of a high volume vehicle. And it would not have been the first time that it went wrong, due to management failures or just a large number of unexpected incidents.

Jens Schaffer had (literally) the pleasure of being part of the development process as a project manager for a BMW supplier from the very beginning. It was a challenge and even experienced automotive people made statements from »Up to now we always ended up with a complete car somehow« to »I have never ever seen anything as unorganised as this before«.

Both comments were correct, a result of the fact that the majority of the members of that international project team were willing and able to learn from one another and to break new ground. So what »we ended up with« is once more a proof of European engineering ability.

» ILIPT
» When the wheels come off...