Industry – Interview with DaimlerChrysler
Simulating Factories and Industrial Processes
Interview with Emmerich Schiller
Dr. Emmerich Schiller, 36, is head of the Digital Production Planning Department and the Digital Factory Project at DaimlerChrysler in Sindelfingen near Stuttgart, Germany. An industrial engineer, Schiller has been with DaimlerChrysler for five years, initially as an assistant plant manager, and later in Production Planning at Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars. Before that, at the University of Karlsruhe, he developed processes that are now being applied to digital representations of industrial environments
In a recent panel discussion on automotive issues, you referred to the digital factory as the third revolution in the auto industry. What did you mean by that?
Schiller:In a figurative sense I think of the digital factory as the counterpart to the digital vehicle. Just as a computer aided design (CAD) model digitally represents a vehicle with all of its components, a digital factory describes the subsequent real factory with all of its components, as well as the interactions between them. Only after a digital vehicle has successfully completed its passage through a digital factory will it be released for production in a real factory. So a digital factory is a virtual representation of a real factory based on an integrated data model—and that makes it possible to consistently apply digital planning methods along the entire process chain, from product development and production planning to large-scale production.
What's revolutionary about this concept?
Schiller:The key advantage is the close digital integration of product development and production planning. The digital factory is the logical extension of CAD applications in automotive product development. Thanks to this concept, decisions regarding hardware that used to require prototypes can be made on the spot. In the digital factory, production planning seamlessly extends the digital process. Its integrated data model forms the backbone that can support a range of functional modules, such as 3D simulation and conventional process time analysis.
What distinguishes the concept of the digital factory from Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), which has been talked about for a long time but apparently never actually achieved?
Schiller:I don't believe CIM has been a failure. It may well be that the initial euphoria was exaggerated and the expectations it created unrealistic. But I am convinced that with the digital factory we've taken a great step forward in the consistent use of data—which is the goal of CIM. Many important subsets of CIM are now taken for granted. And at the very least, the debate about CIM has taught us this much: Such a profound intervention in industrial processes and practices must never be considered merely from the perspective of information technology. It's also crucial to consider organizational, technological and human aspects. But I have no doubt that we'll succeed in realizing the digital factory. In a few years, it will be just as much taken for granted as CAD is in today's development departments.
When did your project at DaimlerChrysler start, and what are your objectives?
Schiller:At the end of 2000 we launched the Digital Factory Project with the objective of integrating existing insular IT solutions and adding functionalities that were still missing. In the past we often had to invest a great deal of time and effort into exchanging data through various interfaces between dissimilar systems. That's going to change now. Our status as a corporate function enables us to coordinate and consolidate many activities. What's more, new functionalities will support planning activities. We want to move on from pure data management to effective planning on the basis of the data we have. One key element of this objective has already been implemented. Vehicle data at DaimlerChrysler is now managed by means of a Product Data Management (PDM) system. But unlike product data, it hasn't been possible until now to completely map process data, such as the robot programs used in production planning. The PDM concept must therefore be further developed until we've got an integrated data model—from product development and production planning to actual production and, ultimately, sales and after-sales functions.
How would that work in a real-world setting?
Schiller: Let me go back to the previous example. A digital vehicle moves through a digital factory. Today, in the assembly area, it looks like this: During digital mock-up (DMU) studies, the entire vehicle is virtually assembled. The idea is to check how and in what sequence individual components can be assembled. The assembly time and the associated tools can also be determined. It's particularly important that design engineers and production planners work closely together to ensure that they can discuss improvements. For example, is there enough room for convenient access to a given assembly location, by hand or with a tool, to tighten a bolt? Such information provides the basis for configuring automatic assembly lines, designing factory layouts and, finally, planning the entire production facility in the digital world. And all of this happens long before the first real prototype is built.
Long before a robot goes to work in an automobile production facility, every component and movement is thoroughly tested in a digital factory
Will it be possible to convert changes in virtual reality data directly into design data? As you mentioned, incompatibility and the need for data conversion have been enormously time-consuming.
Schiller:Rapid planning and evaluation of alternative manufacturing and design concepts is a key objective of our digital factory initiative. When a production planner proposes improvements, a development engineer may have to make changes to the design data. In the past, the engineer would have been issued a change order and would have changed the data accordingly. The digital factory, with its uniform database, enables manufacturing and design engineers to accomplish many changes directly in joint meetings, and therefore in a significantly faster manner. This approach increases flexibility and reduces investment risk, as changes can be made and evaluated long before any hardware is built. Of course, this works only if external partners, particularlysuppliers, are integrated into the process.
Will the digital factory concept save money?
Schiller:Yes. With integration at the IT and process levels, we'll be exploiting substantial opportunities—not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of quality and time. Our experience to date has shown that this approach can detect problems much earlier and resolve them at a lower cost. The results include substantially higher levels of maturity and consequently faster production ramp-ups, as well as fewer revisions in the entire process. Fewer revision loops not only mean faster time-to-market, but also more time for us to respond to customer requirements and product innovations.
Have you quantified the resulting benefits?
Schiller:We've created a detailed business case for the implementation of our project. The initial effects we're achieving today are showing us that our earlier assumptions are holding up well. But the digital factory is based not only on economic decisions, but also on strategic ones. No automaker can develop new products without using CAD anymore, and it will be exactly the same with the digital factory. Because of the great diversity of vehicle models, for instance, it is often the case that several different models are processed on the same assembly line. Such complex planning can only be managed with digital support. We've calculated that production planning time can be shortened by up to 40 %, and that a simultaneous improvement in planning quality can be achieved. Furthermore, shorter development and production planning times result in lower overall costs.
What's been implemented to date?
Schiller: We've come a long way especially in factory planning, which has already been completely converted to 3D. We now plan factories like the Kölleda plant currently under construction in central Germany entirely in 3D. This new plant will set an international benchmark, with respect to both rapid planning and costs. In addition, we're implementing initial workflows. For instance, digital methods were used extensively during the development of the new E-Class, which was planned long before there was a Digital Factory Project. Nevertheless, implementation is far from complete. This is due in part to shortfalls in software functionality and incomplete systems integration. However, it is also due to our continuing effort to further advance and adapt our planning processes and production sequences to the capabilities inherent in the digital factory concept.
The digital factory concept goes far beyond product simulation. It visualizes the interaction of all production processes using an integrated data model
When will your digital factory program be fully implemented?
Schiller: During our rollout we're focusing particularly on four priorities:
- First, to base all our planning processes on standards and production principles that will subsequently be mapped into the software modules of the digital factory. This foundation will enable us to build entire production facilities, production lines and body-in-white plants from standardized modules.
- Second, all relevant data about products, processes and resources will be entered into and administered by a data management system. The system will support a high degree of networking between development and planning. In this process, data will no longer be exchanged via interfaces. Instead, it will be managed in a common database accessible to all participants. As a result, changes in production planning will result in immediate feedback to development, and vice versa.
- Third, we are networking all internal and external process participants through workflows in order to ensure they can accomplish their work by digital means.
- And finally, routine planning tasks will be automated to give planners more creative freedom. This is because in digital planning, a lot of data can be generated automatically from existing data.
On the whole, implementation of the digital factory program is comparable to the introduction of CAD in product development. Implementation of the latter took ten to 15 years and in fact is still continuing. We are the beneficiaries of this process. I am therefore inclined to believe that implementation of the digital factory won't take us that long, and that we will be using its key elements by 2005. By then, no manufacturing plant will be built without having first been completely simulated through its digital counterpart.
What are the limits of current technology in terms of digitizing production sequences and processes?
Schiller:With today's technology, virtual simulations won't be able to completely replace a real test—at least not in the foreseeable future. When it comes to safety-relevant or critical issues—for either products or factories—real tests will be conducted in the future as well. But simulation, if used selectively, can certainly reduce the number of real tests dramatically. And that's exactly what we are doing very successfully today.
When do you think the digital factory will become standard operating procedure in the auto industry and in other industries?
Schiller:At the earliest, the digital factory will become the state of the art by the middle or end of this decade. I would venture to say that virtually all automakers are now working on its implementation. However, they vary considerably in the way they are implementing it. This is to some extent a philosophical issue, but it also has to do with their willingness to invest. System suppliers—those who supply assembly lines, for instance—as well as engineering services firms, are counting on this technology. Another key area is aerospace. Here the need is obvious, because when you're building an airplane the first prototype has got to fly—or at some point you'd have a hard time finding willing test pilots.
What comes after the digital factory? What's going to be the fourth revolution in the auto industry?
Schiller: That's a little far off, like looking into a crystal ball. But I believe that electronics in particular will profoundly change the auto industry. That's what planning and production people have to take into account well in advance. Other challenges will result from new materials, new approaches to active and passive safety—pedestrian safety, for example—and dealing with small production lots. The fact is that all of the automakers have been diversifying their models. As a result, more vehicles are built, even as production runs get smaller. This type of increased modularization requires both greater flexibility in production plants and lower costs for conversion. But that's exactly where a digital factory will offer excellent support.
Interview conducted by Sylvia Trage