BMW has announced that production of the sixth-generation 3 Series has officially begun at its Munich manufacturing facility. The automaker invested around €500 million – over $700M USD – in the plant in preparation for the new model; a move that BMW says secured around 9,000 jobs. A portion of those funds went toward the purchase of a new press that can operate at speeds of up to 17 strokes per minute and process up to 600 tons of steel per day. The automaker says that the machine can handle the equivalent of all of the metal in the Eiffel Tower in just 12 days.

It’s not very often that a smaller vehicle is a company’s flagship, but we don’t care what BMW might tell you about the 7-Series, the 3-Series is the automaker’s top dog. Its styling has always worked and never been vulgar like some other models in the BMW lineup and it’s won more awards from the automotive press than the Los Angeles Lakers.

The new technology is part of the recipe that BMW says will allow the plant to produce around 680 units per day in as little as three months from the start of production. That figure will place the plant's total output at over 900 units per day. Surprisingly enough, that volume occurs in a space of just 700,000 square feet across five floors, making for an incredibly dense work space. Hit the jump for the press release.