Keeping Pace in an Evolving Automotive Industry
August 6, 2024
By Drew Franklin, Commercial Marketing Manager, Rockwell Automation
We’ve seen significant changes in the automotive industry over the past few decades. In particular the development of electric vehicle batteries, and production infrastructure allowing for increased production of electric vehicles. However, keeping up with these developments, trends, and consumer demands, requires agility and a Connected Enterprise production system.
Putting all the pieces in place to consistently meet the demands and quality standards expected of you can be a challenge.
Market demands and old processes
Across the automotive industry we’re seeing that meeting tight deadlines in the current market is not an easy task given the age of equipment and a changing workforce. Coming up with new and innovative designs requires time to get it right. And adding electric vehicle production to your line-up just adds more changes to the process.
The equipment needed and the process involved to build electric vehicles differ from that of standard combustion engine vehicles. To incorporate these changes solutions to optimize efficiencies across the production ecosystem can be helpful and an integral part of automating your facility.
Automation for greater efficiency
There are several areas outside of the assembly line where automation can be implemented to improve efficiency and speed up production. For example, virtual, collaborative design allows your teams to work together no matter where they are located. Vehicle design doesn’t need to be tied to one location. Large cumbersome files don’t need to be emailed back and forth. A collaborative virtual space allows for greater creativity and version control.
Another area that can slow a process is the commissioning of new equipment, which is usually done on-site, but what if you could do that virtually as well? Testing and commissioning new equipment virtually and integrating the code required to run it into your software before it is even set up at your plant means you’re up and running faster.
Standardization speeds time to market
Each vehicle design has its own set of templates and code to ensure identical vehicles in a series roll off the assembly line each time. Keeping track of that information in one accessible repository makes it easy to ensure that everyone has the same information.
Having a library of applications, modular programming, and reusable code along with standardized templates specific to your production lines, means that processes can keep moving. There’s no need to keep rewriting code or building templates if you can pull from a vetted library. This also makes it easier to work across facilities and keep production running even when there are fewer workers available. Information is accessible and workers are trained on how to access it and apply it.
Building the Bridge between IT and OT
Innovation and process efficiencies don’t just happen. They require cooperation across the enterprise. New software only works if the production engineers understand how to use it and integrate it into the process. But even before you can get to that point you need an understanding of your existing processes and where there are areas that can be improved upon. At Rockwell Automation we can help you gain that understanding. With many decades of experience in the automotive industry, we are well-versed in the processes involved and have an understanding of the challenges you face.
To help IT and OT understand the intricacies of your challenges and provide a bridge between the two teams, we developed the RapidLaunch automotive solution. It can underpin the backbone of your digitization and automation strategy to speed time to market and reduce obstacles such as skills gaps. The RapidLaunch automotive solution is a globally accepted, scalable, multi-lingual, automotive controls standard that assist you in improving outcomes.
RapidLaunch automotive solution
The business of designing and building cars to meet the demands of the marketplace is less complex and more efficient with the right tools. That was the driving force behind our development of RapidLaunch. We want to put you in the driver’s seat with a tool that helps optimize the processes all along the production chain.
https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/company/news/blogs/rapidlaunch-ebook.html
