We went on a tour of the Bentley factory last week. They seem to have a really good balance between hand assembled and modern automation. We saw automation assisted cutting out of leather trim followed by hand trimming. There is a wonderful wood shop. We also saw a modern assembly track with jigs and lift assisters. Every one we spoke to took an enormous pride in their work and in the product. One of the highlights was talking to a chap who trims steering wheels at the rate of around 2 a day. The scale of the place was enormous compared to Morgan (4000 people building 11,000 cars a year) but we got the impression that they also have something special there.
That reminds me, I must organise a trip to Bentley
I do wonder though that what is presented in the hand crafting section is all a bit false and there for show only and only work on the very highest spec cars
If Bentley are producing 11,000 cars a year (30 a day rolling off) and it takes one person to trim 2 steering wheels a day
Either there are 15 people trimming wheels all day every day or only a very few Bentleys have hand trimmed wheels
I suspect most of the wheels are made elsewhere and bought in
But I might be completely wrong
