Abstract
Keywords - Digital Manufacturing, PLM, Digital Factory, Process planning, Assembly simulation.
Abstract - Digital Manufacturing is one of the key areas of change in the way business is done in the future in Automotive companies as well as in their supplier base. These computerized technologies deliver end-to-end solutions addressing the complete coverage of the manufacturing processes for all the automotive disciplines including Body-in-White, Powertrain and Final Assembly.
The DELMIA Digital Manufacturing solution models Product, Process and Resource data (PPR) enabling the continuous creation and validation of the manufacturing processes in the context of the product throughout the entire design phases. These PPR models are the foundations that provide the efficiency in responding to changes allowing engineering collaboration for validation and approval that is propagated throughout the enterprise network.
All Automotive OEMs are currently in some deployment phase of methods of Digital Manufacturing. As they design their products using CAD technology, they are already creating data, as one facet and data contribution for a Digital Manufacturing end-to-end solution. The concept is to capture all the manufacturing knowledge from product design through production launch for the reuse of data and standardization of Best Practices. In the near future no factory will start production without an upfront digital validation.
The major goals of the Automotive Industry, Reduced Time to Market, Lower Costs and Improved Quality can be significantly optimized with the adoption of Digital Manufacturing technologies, methods and practices. In an independent analysis the statistics for Return on
Investment to implement and deploy Digital Manufacturing solutions in the Automotive
Industry range from a 5:1 to 10:1 return, well within the Time of Return requirements.
It is no doubt that with the current and developing technology to reduce technical and financial risk along with the favorable Return on Investments that the Automotive Industry will continue to enhance their competitiveness with Digital Manufacturing solutions for many years to come.