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BMW Saves Kilos Of Plastics Through Falcons
Animal news and car news rarely come together, but today the day has happened: falcons save BMW’s factory in Leipzig kilos of plastic. Really and truly!
A car factory is a complex entity. Anyone who wants to make hundreds of cars a day faces logistical challenges that only affect normal people in their worst nightmares. It has become clear again today that not all of these challenges are equally obvious. In Leipzig, where BMW wants to build around 300,000 compact models this year, the cars are briefly parked outside after production. This takes place on a huge site next to the factory hall that is invisible to the outside world because there is also a pre-production model that has yet to be revealed.
As the Small Orchestra once made very clear, one category of living beings pays little attention to German walls: birds. In the case of BMW Werk Leipzig, until recently, this specifically involved pigeons, which often left their droppings on the brand new cars. That is very undesirable because, especially with fresh car paint, such pigeon droppings quickly eat into the car in a nasty way, and the cars are damaged before they are transported to the customer.
To prevent that scenario, the cars were largely wrapped in plastic for a long time. By covering the hood, roof, and other sheet metal parts before driving outside, the paint was at least protected. However, the disadvantages are evident: plastic costs money, plastic is harmful to the environment, and plastic has to be applied, which costs serious time and therefore money for hundreds of thousands of cars per year.
