Audiis implementing the world’s first modular assembly system in the automotive industry as a new and complementary form of organization.
Increasing complexity in products and demand today also changes production requirements. This creates the need to adapt to customer-specific needs, short-term market changes and sustainability issues with greater flexibility than ever before. As a result, mapping a conventional conveyor belt assembly is becoming increasingly challenging. Doing things this way is based on the principle of uniform cycle time for each product, in a fixed order. The Modular Assembly that Audi is developing works without belts or a uniform running speed.
Modular Assembly, one of Audi’s answers to future production demands, replaces rigid conveyor belts with dynamic procedures with a variable station array, variable processing times (virtual conveyor belt). The concept model is already being used for pre-assembly of interior door panels at the Ingolstadt plant, in preparation for the next series of applications. The pilot project, which is considered as the most important example of Audi’s development of networked production in agile teams and innovation culture, offers more flexible and efficient assembly.
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Audi will lighten the workload with modular assembly
One of the most important advantages of the flexible system is that it allows the employment of workers who are no longer able to work on the line due to their physical limitations. Audi uses more flexible automation in the production process to ease the burden on employees. Instead of a uniform cycle, all workers get a lighter workload thanks to variable processing time.
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The pilot project is geared towards value creation and self-management, reducing production time and increasing productivity by around 20 percent. Making it possible to reschedule jobs effortlessly by disconnecting stations, the system often only needs software tuning, thanks to flexible hardware and automated guided tools.
Stations can be adapted more easily than an interconnected conveyor belt according to products and demand. Audi aims to integrate Modular Assembly into larger scale assembly lines as the next step.