"Warwick Manufacturing Group Redefines
Car Production"

Delmia

TRYING to anticipate demand for a car that hasn’t even been made yet is an unenviable task, yet it is an exercise that the major car manufacturers face each year. Linked to this decision is expenditure on millions of pounds worth of plant. While production capacity is always static, demand is fluid.

The number of years in which Rover was selling at, or near its peak of 180,000 models per annum of the Rover 100 model were few. In fact, though the production facilities remained the same, there was clearly an excess capacity, as for several years, the company was only able to sell between 40,000 and 80,000 models per annum.

Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), part of the Faculty of Engineering within The University of Warwick, has just completed a one year feasibility study at the behest of the DTI. The theme of commonality and Design for Assembly, which has already been adopted by such manufacturers as Ford, has been taken further than ever before in The Responsive Automotive Manufacturing Plant (RAMP). This study is now moving onto the next phase in the form of a three year research project for Land Rover.

Ian Pearson, Senior Research Fellow in WMG, explained: “This project began with the Holy Grail of automotive manufacture, the paint shop. Its total elimination has already been achieved by Sony in television manufacture, so we reasoned that if we could create an inherently flexible system based on a cellular matrix instead of the traditional line, we could eliminate not just one bottleneck, but all of them. Also, if we can run several models through our matrix, the problem of cars increasing or decreasing in demand simply disappears, as RAMP allows the same production facilities to produce different models.

“Wonderful as it appears for car manufacturers to get maximum return on their investment for the lifecycle of all their models, our modular construction solution can soon get extremely complex. 3D discrete event simulation is the only way to cope with the myriad variables, and we have adopted DELMIA’s QUEST, which is the best such system by general consensus. This system’s in-built logic minimises capital cost by maximising utilisation. Bottlenecks caused by equipment breakdown no longer happen within our virtual plant, as the system simply re-routes within the matrix. Using QUEST, we can prove that up to 12 different models can be simultaneously manufactured by the same jigs and robots. Certainly, implementing the system would be expensive, but then car manufacturers face enormous expense creating a new manufacturing line each time a new model is introduced.”

Philosophically, both Design for Assembly and Design for Facility have to be wholeheartedly embraced for RAMP to work as envisaged. An illustration of the former is assembling a vehicle’s interior prior to attaching the roof, allowing far easier access. The latter is adopted by using the processes which are already available, as well as limiting tooling modifications.

QUEST makes it clear which cells are in the highest demand and these can then be duplicated. Subassemblies are kitted up onto tooling pallets and routed through the various cells. All parts of the facility, cells, tooling pallets and so on, are modular and easily reconfigurable.

RAMP benefits are:

* Cells can be modified without stopping production
* Prototypes can be built through a production facility
* Model run-outs can be long, as they do not stop other production
* Line balancing becomes less important
* Extensive variation between models can be achieved
* New vehicle concepts can be tried cheaply

Incorporating Virtual Reality and 3D graphics, QUEST is an interactive tool which allows the user to quickly produce textured, high quality models for both commerce and manufacturing applications. QUEST integrates with all the other DELMIA products, so it is possible to create an interactive, virtual factory where machinery, robots and people are simulated to provide a total managerial solution, giving answers on everything from ergonomics to production planning.

Background Information

DELMIA Corp. develops e-business solutions for manufacturing by implementing a process centric solution to plan, define, monitor and control production systems from single device workcell, production line, factory material flow to extended enterprise production flow. DELMIA serves industry segments where continuous transformation and optimisation of the manufacturing processes are critical such as: Automotive, Aerospace, Fabrication and Assembly, Electrical and Electronics, Consumer Goods, Plant and Shipbuilding. DELMIA solutions are interoperable with major CAD, PDM and ERP systems.