BMW Uses Printronix Printers With Online Data Validation (ODV™) To Improve Quality Control In The Supply Chain

Known as the “world’s most advanced car engine productions plant,” the £400 million, 85-acre BMW plant at Hams Hall in the United Kingdom employs 700 people and produces approximately 600 four-cylinder petrol engines, from 1.6- to 2.0-liter capacity, per day.

Each engine produced at Hams Hall is labeled with a Code 39 bar code that holds the engine’s serial number. The labels have a touch face coating and are applied using strong adhesive, so that they will remain affixed for the life of the engine. Code 39, or Code 3 of 9, is one of the most popular alphanumeric bar codes used for identification, inventory and tracking in the automotive industry. If the bar code cannot be read properly, when the engine arrives at a BMW automotive assembly plant in Germany, North America or South Africa, production and the plant’s automated processes can be significantly impacted.