Cars and other motor vehicles are in many ways becoming more and more complex...
A myriad of new functions, gadgets, software applications and sensors are entering the hardware construction. In other ways, they’re becoming more streamlined – electrification eliminates the need for a clunky and heavy combustion engine. The automotive industry is often ahead of the rest when it comes to bringing new technology into the manufacturing and assembly processes. But the assembly of vehicle electronics can often be a completely different process, taking place in a completely different location than the final assembly of the car.
Man + machine (Collaborative robots / cobots)
This is an industry already experimenting vastly with implementations of robotics and automation. But sometimes vehicle electronics – for example applications in the cockpit area, media centre, antennas (GPS navigation), electric motors for windows, etc − prove too small for a full implementation of robotics.
In other words, automation is possible to a certain extent, and operators need to collaborate with the factory robots to get the job done.. Regarding this topic, it is crucial to have the right partner to support you.
There is also a well-established mindset of collecting data in the automotive industry, and consequently in vehicle electronics as well, considering it is part of the car industry. But the question is: what do you do with the data?
The industry 4.0 approach
This time is coming in a high speed and bringing the truly Industry 4.0-oriented approach that enables further improvements in efficiency, quality and accountability:
Collecting data is easy.
As long as you have sensors, data can be transmitted and stored. The Internet of Things explosion is a relevant testament to that. In Industry 4.0, however, we move beyond simply collecting data for the sake of storing it for the future. Collecting data is easy – analysing and utilizing the data in a proactive way is more complex.
But it's more than collecting data...
Collecting, analyzing and making data driven decisions is a natural part of our daily work with clients. We are in the business of data collection and utilization, and can help our customers to analyse and visualize the data – from all screws, tools, operators, work stations and in the end, all assembled products.
It's about making decisions based on facts.
This enables making decisions based on facts rather than assumptions, and provides tools for implementing data driven process improvement in order to avoid problems such as floating or missing screws, missing components or other assembly issues.
Being aware of future challenges of merging sources.
The automotive electronics industry demands a more proactive approach, driving improvement and further pushing the boundaries. The next challenge is to develop systems and interfaces that can integrate all the different kinds of processes in one place, where all the data sources are merged.