BIG Production

The BIG production plant in Burghaslach, directly on the A3 between Würzburg and Nuremberg: on premises covering 320,000 square metres you will find one of the most modern toy factories in Europe.

The toys are produced using either the blow moulding or the injection moulding process. Primarily, the products are manufactured by means of extrusion blow moulding. Not only are all the BIG BOBBY CAR bodies produced in the production hall, but also the many other large parts that make up the BIG toys. Depending on the order book and stock in hand, steel moulds and colours will change. A three-shift system of working is operated. More than a million BIG products leave the premises each year: BIG BOBBY CARs with accessories and other vehicles and toys such as trucks or tractors, slides and sandpits.

Of particular importance for the manufacture are the tools for the blow moulding and injection moulding machines. The tools, at times weighing several tons, are stored in a fireproofed concrete hall. They are inserted in the huge machines. In the 15 fully automated blow moulding machines, a tube, which is guided between the moulds and inflated with compressed air, is formed from the molten polyethylene. In the process, the plastic is pressed against the tool and cooled by the air. It only takes 60 seconds for a component like a BIG BOBBY CAR body to be formed in this way. A robot gripper arm removes the part from the mould and, accurate to the millimetre, smoothes off the rough edge with red-hot air before depositing the part on a conveyor belt.

The main raw material used in BIG products is polyethylene (PE). This plastic is light and weatherproof, does not tend to break, splinter or dent, and is sweat and saliva resistant. The use of polyethylene and the blow moulding technology make the BIG products extremely robust and hardwearing. What is more: they are UV-resistant, physiologically perfect and environmentally friendly. The BIG quality certificate guarantees this. Since 1976 BIG products have been subjected to all the hardness tests of the German Technical Inspection Authority (TÜV) and the State Trade Agency of Bavaria (LGA), which specialises in Q&S testing, and carry the “tested for safety” GS mark, the most important quality symbol of product safety.

There is no process waste or seconds at BIG. If a BIG product should have the tiniest defect, it is rejected and reprocessed, and the reclaimed material that results is fed back into the production process.

In the assembly hall, the individual components are put together and packed in the appropriate product box. The boxes are then transported along a conveyor belt, arranged on pallets by a fully automated robot and shrink-wrapped in plastic film. The route to the logistics centre runs underground for 700 metres via conveyor belts and lifts, ending in the 40-metre high, fully automated high bay warehouse. From here it is only a few metres to the loading bay where trucks wait to take the BIG products on their journey around the globe. BIG exports as far afield as Japan, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Dubai and the USA.