New digital core for our manufacturing plants
Going electric, online and growing direct customer relationships means our order, production and distribution processes must be smart – so we’re digitising more in all our plants.
New digital tools at our plants provide efficient data that’s accessible from anywhere in the plant or the office.
Our car plants are powered by hundreds of IT systems supporting our whole manufacturing process. The systems help plan and control our production, so robots know what to do and when to do it, ensuring the right material gets delivered to the right place along the line. They also support with quality checks and keeping track of the data needed to run, maintain and improve a world-class plant.
Our plant in Chengdu has a modern IT system setup, yet our Torslanda plant – which has been operating for 50 years or so – is due for an update to the same standard as our newer plants around the world. The main benefits? Shorter lead-times when developing new solutions and increased stability in production lines globally.
“Basically, we limit the number of specific developments needed for each plant individually and can focus on global developments,” says David Westman, who’s leading the project. “This will be essential when we introduce future car platforms. It makes us quicker and more flexible to launch across all our plants.”
David Westman says the project will span over several years and the approach will differ between the areas in the plant:
“In some areas, we can develop the new systems in a test environment that initially runs in parallel with the current systems. When it’s ready, we can switch over seamlessly. In other areas, we’ll have several rollouts. In our agile setup, there will be consistent rebalancing and coordination with other time-sensitive projects, such as car launches.”
“The new tool – which visualises information such as id, colour, type, and model – is now available in all our plants.”
One of the project’s first milestones is the launch of a new tracking tool. This provides an accurate real-time overview of cars as they are on the production line. The new tool – which visualises information such as id, colour, type, and model – is now available in all our plants.
“We’re just in the beginning of realising the full potential of this tracking tool,” says Markus Hulander, who’s been working with the implementation. “I’m very excited about the opportunity of having all data on production lines, cars and equipment visualised in one improved and modern user interface.”
The tool has already simplified the lives of our colleagues working on the plant’s steering bridge, from where they supervise the production and make sure everything runs smoothly.
Steering bridge operator Peo Björsell says, “Instead of me having to put together reports based on several different systems, the new tool provides the same information in one place – and it’s accessible from anywhere in the plant or the office. Now my colleagues have instant access to the information themselves, which is smoother for everyone.”
The tracking tool is just one of many milestones ahead as we modernise our digital core. The next step includes preparing for producing fully electric vehicles beyond what’s already taking place in our Ghent factory.
