Meeting the Dynamic Engineering Needs of Today’s Automotive Assembly Lines

Summary

For an automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM), the assembly line represents a tremendous capital cost and operating expense. As product complexity, configurations and model changes increase, assembly line engineering programs regularly extend beyond project deadlines. Conversely, older lines often lack the efficiencies afforded by advanced design methods. With an estimated 95 million vehicles being produced in the past year, reducing cycle times, time-to-market, and energy consumption can yield enormous cost savings.

L&T TS, a global engineering company, provides services and solutions that span the entire engineering lifecycle across a multitude of industries. L&T TS recently briefed ARC Advisory Group on its manufacturing engineering-related activities in the global automotive industry. The briefing provided a “deep dive” into three recent automotive projects where L&T TS contributed significantly to the project success. These include projects at a Japanese automotive OEM to reduce energy costs and integrate a new model into existing production lines; an American automotive OEM to increase production capacity; and a commercial vehicle OEM in India to create a unified manufacturing process for new vehicles.

Shift in Automotive Manufacturing

The automotive industry has a remarkable history of manufacturing practices and engineering innovation. From Henry Ford’s first assembly lines, to the Japanese-led developments in productivity and quality, to more recent advances in process flexibility, the industry has been a testbed for what would later become universal standards of manufacturing excellence. However, due to the confluence of several trends, many automotive OEMs currently find themselves pushed to the limits of their capabilities. These trends include:

Higher product complexity:

Lightweighting initiatives necessitate development of new materials, fabrication processes, and design concepts. Hybrid powertrains and integration of advanced technology systems add another layer of design complexity. Both put tremendous strain on the product development process.

Growing product variability:

Consumer demands for increased customization leads to hundreds of build variations. For each model, customers can select body styles, powertrains, as well as a litany of interior and exterior options. Finding ways to manufacture all variations as efficiently as possible is an enormous task for manufacturing engineers.

Compressed project timelines:

OEMs employ extensive systems engineering and project management approaches to meet today’s compressed product development cycle in the automotive industry. To ensure the success of a program and reach each milestone, it’s critical to carefully orchestrate internal engineering efforts and supplier programs. As such, increasing the complexity of a program requires that each individual task must be completed faster, or else risk cascading delays down the line.

The Manufacturing Engineer’s Dilemma

Failure to meet any one of the above challenges while maintaining quality and cycle time targets has significant impact on an OEM’s top and bottom lines. For that reason, each new program represents a potentially career-altering balancing act for a manufacturing engineering team. Engineers are tasked to optimize a line for flexibility, cycle time, energy efficiency, and quality control; while product designs evolve and the product launch approaches. Often, target metrics aren’t achieved, requiring concessions to be made to avoid schedule delays. Post-launch change management programs can be expensive and introduce substantial risk, but represent huge potential cost saving opportunities.

Engineering Services Bridge the Innovation Gap

Specialized engineering services, like those offered by L&T TS, deliver two key benefits than can help alleviate the manufacturing engineers’ dilemma.

First, they provide a rapid, temporary influx of engineering expertise to minimize the need for OEMs to shuffle employees between projects and/or hire new engineering talent.

Second, the leading engineering service providers have industry-leading technology and the experience to use it effectively. It often takes considerable time for large OEMs to implement new engineering software. In contrast, engineering service providers are typically among the first adopters. Their agility in embracing and mastering new tools and methods enables their clients to bypass the disruption, risk, and learning curve that comes with software upgrades, while reaping the benefits.

Adding a New Model While Reducing Energy Needs

In the first case study, a Japanese automotive OEM engaged with L&T TS to reduce energy costs and integrate a new model into existing manufacturing lines. The integration feasibility study evaluated six plants in North America, Europe, and Asia simultaneously. As part of the project, L&T TS contributed cycle time studies and optimization; virtual simulation of robotic welding, painting, sealant, handling and assembly, and fixture design; as well as support in electrical design, PLC programming, HMI design, and system integration. According to L&T TS, customer benefits included an overall reduction in assembly line energy consumption, quick turnaround for product revisions, and - perhaps most significantly - a reduction in the product launch cycle.

Increasing Capacity for Body in White Welding Process

The second case study involved a more focused effort to increase production capacity for a mixed-material, “body in white” welding process at a US automotive plant. Utilizing digital manufacturing techniques, L&T TS provided a proof of concept that would reduce the cycle time of the existing, as-designed weld line by 20 percent. To achieve the targeted 40 percent capacity ramp up for this line, L&T TS re-designed the weld distribution and optimized robot pathing and process parameters. The resulting assembly line was engineered to minimize the need for additional resources in the existing footprint.

Migrating Product Structure for Volume Manufacturing

In the third case study discussed, L&T TS supported an Indian OEM’s strategic initiative to create a unified manufacturing process for new vehicles utilizing the latest digital manufacturing and manufacturing simulation software. L&T TS’s contributions included migrating the company’s product structure from static bills of materials (BOM) to configurable, modular architecture-based BOMs, and creating master templates for the company’s chassis line for future models. L&T TS also provided services for process planning, assembly simulation, tool validation, ergonomic analysis, and cycle time optimization for the OEMs two leading models.

Conclusions

Factors such as increasing complexity of products and evolving consumer behavior drive today’s automotive OEMs and their technology providers to develop better tools, processes, and workflows for their assembly lines. However, the rapid changes in engineering demand experienced during product development will continue to pain enterprises of all sizes. For larger OEMs, the time- and resource-consuming nature of software adoption hinder their ability to leverage cutting-edge technology. The case studies discussed here demonstrate the value of on-demand engineering expertise for developing new production lines, optimizing established lines, and addressing entire engineering strategies.

ARC has been tracking the growth of service-based business models with great interest. Today’s emerging digital enterprise concepts facilitate much deeper, more effective engagement between customers and suppliers. As a result, more and more OEMs will find it advantageous to develop a business strategy around utilizing global engineering services firms such as L&T Technology Services, which will continue to provide innovative solutions.

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Keywords: Automotive, OEM, L&T Technology Services, Body in White, ARC Advisory Group.