David Duffy finds out how the car factory is revving up to change to making Minis

No-one could accuse the new head of Cowley's car plant of lacking enthusiasm. Managing director Dr Herbert Diess positively bubbles over with excitement at the prospect of turning the Oxford factory into the centre of world production for the new Mini.

German media invited to a press briefing at Cowley were plainly sceptical, firing a volley of questions concealing a thinly-veiled hostility towards the whole idea of BMW keeping any car-making presence in Britain.

Dr Diess quietly but firmly refused to let the simmering disapproval, which followed four of the most troubled months in BMW's history, dent his passion for the task ahead.

He said: "This car will be the small Rolls-Royce. The old Mini is still fun to drive, but what is coming will probably be the most exciting car since the launch of the Mini in 1959. "It will be great to drive and, very importantly, it will be a very safe car and it will be built 100 per cent to BMW quality standards."

Engineering quality is second nature to the 41-year-old father of three. After nine years studying at the Technical University in Munich, he became a department head, then worked for engineering firm Bosch, where he was in charge of restructuring a plant in Spain, before joining BMW four years ago.

The new Mini may be the smallest car to come out of Cowley in recent years, but it will present the plant with one of its biggest challenges.

The first hurdle will be a 35m switch of complete assembly lines between Cowley and Rover's Longbridge plant, being paid for by BMW. That move will be followed by intensive training for the workforce, combined with an ever-sharper focus on quality. Meticulous attention to detail is no longer heaped solely on large executive cars. As buyers of large cars increasingly downsize, manufacturers have recognised the need to produce smaller cars of much higher quality.

The workers at Cowley, having produced their best model yet in the luxurious and beautifully-built Rover 75, now face repeating the exercise in excellence to relaunch the Mini marque.

The workforce may still be dressed in Rover overalls and the design centre computer screensavers still bear the Viking badge, but BMW is now very clearly in control at Cowley and is enthusiastically pressing its message of engineering quality.

Quality was a recurring theme during a press briefing on the car, held in a new model centre at Cowley which was set up in a record 22 days.

Already, workers are hand-building prototypes of the new car, due to make its public debut at the Paris Motor Show on September 23. The winged Mini badge will soon be flying over the Cowley plant and grey workwear will make way for the corporate orange-and-black of the new marque.

BMW's corporate communications spokesman Herr Axel Obermller was crystal clear about the need to ensure the Mini met BMW quality standards before it was launched.

Quizzed about a launch date for the car, which will have a starting price of about 10,000, he would only say it would be the summer of 2001 and it would not be launched until it was right.

Under the deal signed between BMW and Rover's new owners Phoenix, once Rover 75 production finishes at Cowley at the end of July, the Rover 75 assembly lines, completed just two years ago, will be packed up and transported to Longbridge. At the same time, the Mini lines from Longbridge will be reinstalled where the Rover 75 lines were at Cowley. Dr Diess said only perfect planning would allow the switch to go ahead smoothly.

He said: "The parallel exchange of two complete production plants is a challenging task in logistics."

The switch will also mean a hectic couple of months for workers, followed by a nine-week paid holiday. The flexibility in working has been achieved by an agreement between the management and unions called the flexible working time account. This allows managers to call on staff to work longer hours when cars are needed and also allows the workforce to take more paid leave when they are not needed. As part of the build-up to the move, two-shift working has been reintroduced at Cowley to build a stock of 2,600 Rover 75s and 6,600 bodies for Phoenix ready for the changeover.

The first pre-production runs of the Mini are due to start in September, with a further break in production planned for Christmas, followed by a second pre-production run starting in January 2001.

Engines for the new Mini will be shipped in from Brazil, where they will be produced at a joint venture plant with DaimlerChrysler. Body panels will be brought in from pressings plants in Germany.

Four hundred of the 2,400-strong workforce will be temporarily transferred to Birmingham to oversee the installation of the Rover 75 and a further 700 will be offered 15 weeks' training at BMW's plants at Regensburg, Munich and Dingolfing. Dr Diess said an attractive early retirement package was being offered to employees aged over 50, to reduce the average age of workers at the plant currently about 45 and the highest of any of the former Rover factories.

He said: "The workforce at the Oxford plant have already proved their performance and efficiency in the process of ramping up the Rover 75. Now they will apply this experience, together with the know-how of the entire BMW Group, in ramping up the new Mini."

If anyone is qualified to oversee the switch of production between Oxford and Birmingham it is Dr Diess. From January to May this year he was managing director at Longbridge.