BMW Tour and Layout Video

A couple of weeks ago, we toured the BMW plant in Spartanburg S.C.  This is a wonderful tour and I highly recommend it if you are ever in upstated S.C. It's not too long a drive from Atlanta or Charlotte.

I've always wanted to go but never quite got there even though it is only about 2 hours from us. I love seeing how things are made.  Periodically they suspend tours when they are bringing new models on for production.  That is happening over the next few months so we really had to go the week I called.  It was worth the drive.

You start at the BMW museum seeing cars like these little tiny things that seem to me to just be a metal box you would ride around in.  The door is actually on the front.  Apparently they were popular in Europe years ago.  I'd feel like I was puttering around the village in my coffin but they are cute.  We are posed next to an Art Deco motorcyle and also saw the James Bond BMW which has a vehicle ID number ending in 007.  It was made at the Spartanburg plant - the only US BMW manufacturing plant.

The main event was the factory tour.  Photos aren't allowed.  You wear headphones to hear everything the tour guide says.  The amount of computer programming to make their processes run must be incredible.  Everything in the plant is where it needs to be when it needs to be there.  When an associate is ready for a right front tire on a vehicle, the exact type of tire the customer ordered is the next one off the pallet.  Robotics are everywhere.  We were really impressed with all they do to create an ergonomic environment for their employees.  The cars ride along on these pallets on top of the conveyors.   The pallet automatically raises or lowers the vehicle when it reaches its next station depending on whether the associate will need to reach high or low for whatever part is installed next.  It's just amazing to watch the process.  It is like an orchestra.

The tour takes an hour and half (the website says an hour) and it is all walking and standing indoors.  There was one person in our group who had a wheelchair and was glad of it because she wouldn't have been able to walk that much.  I'd love to take my dad if I could convince him to 'ride' through the tour.  He just can not walk that far anymore.  Well see how he feels when the tours resume probably next year.

Today's layout is based on a sketch at PamelasWorldofScrap blog.  I substituted triangles for squares for embellishment.  The triangles go with the BMW symbol and suggest movement like an assembly line.

It's been ages since I did an all cardstock page.  Cardstock seemded a cleaner choice and really popped on the black background.

Since I couldn't photo the assembly lines, I wrote quite a bit of journaling and it is pocketed behind the last two photos.  A little gray and white striped Washi and some silver brads finish off the embellishment.

Here's my process video which you can watch here or at YouTube:


Check out Pamela's blog for info on her giveaway chance if you create a project using one of the sketches.  She has a giveaway going until the 30th.

Thanks for visiting!