Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill in Marin
Quote:
Originally Posted by cptobvious
TLDR: BMW would if they could, but they can't so they don't.
Apologies in advance for the novel length post, but it sounds like you're asking a genuine question, so am trying to provide a genuine answer. If you're really seriously asking why Porsche do it but BMW does not, I have a real answer based on having done quite a bit of work in assembly plants and manufacturers.
I do quite a bit helping Fortune 500 companies set up operations, including assembly plants for auto manufacturers. On this forum, I'm a clown. But in my real life job, I spend a lot of time advising senior execs at big companies.
Porsche can offer 8,000 options because they use a technique called "Lean." Lean manufacturing enables Porsche to flexibly design their assembly plants so that they can easily accommodate "customized" builds. For example, last year, Porsche pointed out that at most they'd only built 2 identical 911's worldwide. What that means is that due to their lean manufacturing prowess, they were able to build ~10k custom cars.
No other auto manufacturer has this capability. As a result, Porsche have the highest margins of any auto manufacturer. Letting people custom design their cars allows Porsche to perfectly "price discriminate" and charge consumers at precisely their maximum willingness to pay.
Again, NO OTHER AUTO MANUFACTURER has this capability. Toyota are arguably even better at lean than Porsche (the technique originated with Toyota) but they have focused their lean capabilities 100% on reliability and quality, as opposed to customization and price discrimination, as Porsche have.
The reason BMW does not give us 8,000 options to customize our cars is not that they don't want to, or that they don't recognize the value in doing so, or that they don't know that we'd be willing to pay out the nose for the privilege... it's that BMW and all the other manufacturers not called Toyota and Porsche still use a version of mass manufacturing. Because BMW has not mastered lean techniques, their plants, their people, their processes are not set up to allow any REAL customization.
There was a huge long thread many moons ago decrying the fact that if you wanted an individual color on the M2C, it would cost you $24k. The reason it costs so much is not that BMW was gouging you for the privilege. It was that the Leipzig plant is not set up to do customization, and it probably costs BMW greatly in excess of $24k to provide individual paint - I think they only did it for Mr. Fux and maybe one or two other VIPs worldwide.
So, with all that said, the Leipzig plant is set up in a very inflexible way, the workers are trained and incentivized with a mass manufacturing culture and mindset, and the processes are turgid. As a result, the 2021 model year will most likely end up with EXACTLY the same features as the 2020 model...
I take that back: they did upgrade the rear lights between the 2019 and 2020 models. Check out the 15 threads on that REVOLUTIONARY change. Whoever can spot the difference between the rear lights on the 2019 versus 2020 models deserves a cookie! But, when you use mass manufacturing techniques like BMW does, that's about all you can profitably do between model years - in other words, next to nil.
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BMW uses lean. Every major manufacturer does. Search 'Lean Manufacturing BMW' and you'll see that they even have tons of white papers on their own lean implementations. It's definitely not unique to Porsche and Toyota. Plus, Toyota and BMW just jointly produced the Z4/Supra, I'm sure it's lean manufacturing all around. |
Yes, apologies. I was using hyperbole to make the larger general point.
All auto manufacturers today use lean to varying degrees of success. But the key point is the "to varying degrees of success" part.
Other auto manufacturers' lean capabilities relative to Toyota and Porsche (and to some extent Honda) is akin to Cptobvious's golf game relative to Tiger Woods's golf game.
