![]() ![]() Making these small helpers attractive to companies, cobots can be relatively inexpensive, often costing under $50,000 each. For instance, Renault has deployed cobots in a few plants to help build the powertrain-torqueing bolts to a certain tolerance, a task that can be tedious for humans to do consistently and efficiently. ![]() Ranging in size from two- to four-feet high, these automated assistants work with humans to perform tasks that perhaps are slightly dangerous or repetitive, or that require a special agility to work in tight or hard to reach places, such as working underneath autos. New collaborative robots, or cobots, are also adding a new twist: Instead of threatening the survival of humans on the assembly line by replacing them, cobots enhance their native abilities. The leap forward will be accomplished through the development of a new process-in this case, electrifying the auto-not automating an old one. Simpler tasks may lend themselves better to robots, but several steps on the line will also be bypassed. For this operation to be automated would again require a new process-perhaps going wireless, with the electrical systems operating via electronic modules or connecting via the cloud.Ī new process will also need to be developed to assemble electric vehicles since they involve the relatively uncomplicated installation of the battery pack and an electric motor. The consequence to the assembly plant: more wires and connectors leading to longer, heavier wire harnesses. With a future market expected to consist of electric and autonomous vehicles, the electrical systems will need to transmit more data faster and unfailingly, compared to today’s car. ![]() There are also some tasks on the assembly line for which humans are better suited, such as handling all of the intricacies of installing and connecting a car’s wire harnesses-the nervous system of a vehicle. It would be expensive, if even possible, to reprogram robots and machines to be able to accommodate daily changes in factory production schedules. Most factories are producing several models of cars simultaneously, and the mix of those models is often changing depending on demand. Automating this section has proved more difficult because the customization and complexity of today’s autos requires the flexibility humans provide. Today, two-thirds of automotive workers-the human ones-are in the general assembly section. Whatever it is, it will have to be more than adding a few more robots into the mix to make a significant difference in the cost of producing an auto. Or 3-D printing of the entire car body in the color a customer orders, completely eliminating the need for a traditional paint shop and body shop. Perhaps it will be the experimental approach of applying a single film over the car and then baking it on, like in a pottery kiln-currently being tested in automotive research labs. For instance, in the BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, processing a car through the paint shop is a 12-hour task, involving more than 100 robots, and requiring a vehicle in the paint assembly line to travel four miles within the factory before the process is complete.Ĭlearly, there has to be a better way to paint a car, but to make that operation more efficient and take cost out will require the development of a new process. Robots, instead of humans, perform most tasks-applying protective corrosion coats, sealant, primer, basecoat, and clear coat to achieve the highly polished finishes we like on our cars-but the process itself is not that different than what it was 30 years ago. Today, in most mature markets, it’s more than 90 percent automated, yet it is still one of the most expensive and space-intensive sections of the factory. How to make your company more nimble and responsive. ![]() It will look different because we will have invented entirely new processes and designs for building cars requiring entirely new manufacturing techniques. When a real Factory of the Future arrives, it will not look different because we have automated the processes we use today. But the reality is that any major leap forward on cost and efficiency will no longer be possible through automation alone, since most of the tasks that can be automated in an automotive factory have already been tackled. There’s no doubt that the auto industry will continue to vigorously pursue automation solutions to lower the cost of producing cars. They think of the “lights-out” factory that General Motors Chief Executive Roger Smith fantasized about in 1982 and Elon Musk talks about building today-plants so dominated by robots and machines that they don’t need lights to work. When people think of the automotive Factory of the Future, the first word that comes to mind is automation. ![]()
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