BMW have submitted plans for new 138,639 sq ft manufacturing facility complete with offices on the site of an existing plant in Swindon.

 

If the plans are approved, the land would boast a new production facility for the car maker. There are currently 850 staff on the site, producing doors, bonnets, tailgates and roof assemblies for Mini vehicles.

 

The proposed facility would be built on a recently demolished building at the southern end of the site.

 

The application’s design and access statement said: "The proposed development comprises the erection of a new manufacturing building with an ancillary excess material building and container office. These buildings comprise 12,880 sq m (138,639 sq ft) of floorspace.

 

"The proposed development would also include car parking, landscaped areas and the reconfiguration of circulation roads.

 

"The rationale for the planning application is that BMW would like to secure a planning permission for a new manufacturing building to enhance and support the case for investment at BMW Plant Swindon.

 

"Should consent be granted, the decision to invest in BMW Plant Swindon will be made once planning consent has been achieved; therefore, without a planning consent there would be no chance of investment.

 

"BMW request a five-year time period for the implementation of the planning consent, as opposed to the standard three-year time period, to provide flexibility on the potential for investment."

 

The site has been home to car panel production facilities since 1955 and was originally owned by Pressed Steel Fisher until 1968 when was acquired by British Leyland. In 1986, Rover Group and British Aerospace took the helm until 1994 when the plant was bought by the BMW Group, who have since invested £40m in the site.

 

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Factories and production facilities have been using clocking in and out to monitor and measure their employees’ hours for payroll pretty much since the start of factories. The first time-recording machine was invented in 1888!

 

However, there is still plenty of room for factories to modernise their time and attendance systems! 

 

Some companies are still using very old-fashioned methods such as swipe cards or punch cards. Depending on the company’s requirements, we can offer three alternatives.

 

Firstly, if they would like to keep using cards to record their time and attendance in order to disrupt the workforce as little as possible, then we can offer the company our contactless proximity smartcards. 

 

These are about the size of an average credit card, and fit in your wallet. The radio frequency technology means that you don’t even have to take them out of the wallet in order to scan them!

 

This completely contactless technique means that the card doesn’t suffer from wear and tear and doesn’t need a battery, and so barring an absolute disaster can go on indefinitely. 

 

The second option is fingerprint scanning. This is useful for factories which have had problems with people losing their cards, or with people deliberately swapping cards and clocking in for each other. 

 

Whenever registered users have their fingerprints scanned, a comparison is made between the live fingerprint and the stored fingerprint template and if the two match, the event is saved in Time and Attendance controller database.

 

These first two options can both be programmed onto the same reader; our time and attendance clocking station. The next option is a different piece of hardware, though it is seamlessly incorporated into our software.

 

And last but certainly not least, companies could opt for the hand geometry scanner. This is equally as useful as the fingerprint scanner option, but is better in situations where workers might end up with very dirty fingers, like a construction site or a kitchen. 

 

The terminal captures an image of the hand each time the employee punches. The hand’s size and the shape are used to verify their identity accurately. No finger or palm prints are recorded.