Roadmap for Automotive Smart Manufacturing
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“By working with CESMII, we are able to leverage not only their expertise, but relationships with their members, the U.S. Department of Energy, and additional industry contacts to promote smart manufacturing as a critical enabler for advancing and improving U.S. automotive manufacturing processes.”
“The Automotive manufacturing landscape continues to face enormous headwinds, putting stress on every aspect of the business, including the global supply network. Adding to that is the market move toward electrification, new sustainability requirements, and significant worker retention issues. OEMs are being forced to re-examine every aspect of their business, paving the way for a more resilient and collaborative approach to address these challenges.” Dyck continued, “All of this points to a critical need to rethink the way we use data to empower people and inform strategies, both for real time operations, and on a longer horizon for resource planning and predictions.”
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Feb. 14, 2024 – The United States Council for Automotive Research LLC (USCAR) today announced the publication of its “Roadmap for Automotive Smart Manufacturing” for standards-based openness and interoperability of platforms and applications to enable a more productive, competitive and resilient automotive manufacturing environment in the U.S.
The roadmap was developed by a working group of USCAR, whose members are Ford, GM and Stellantis, in collaboration with CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute. The roadmap’s scope includes strategies to improve interoperability of manufacturing systems and to break down digital silos of legacy platforms.
Smart manufacturing requires a high degree of automation and integration of systems on the shop floor to deliver optimal performance. These systems have evolved over decades in a highly proprietary, closed manner. The resulting landscape of incompatible machine communication creates costly delays and complexity in product launches for automotive companies. Interoperability and extensibility of these machines is imperative to ensure cost-efficient operation and viability.
The Roadmap focuses on three pivotal strategies essential for fostering a more productive and sustainable automotive manufacturing environment in the U.S. These strategies are:
- Collaborate via real-time, data-driven business orchestration of digital processes within plants and across the value chain. Goal: flexible and agile processes and supply chains easily reconfigured for changing market demands.
- Enable innovation through application and data interoperability based on standardized, open interfaces that eliminate data silos, stovepipe architectures, and vendor lock-in. Goal: reduce complexity and improve efficiency and innovation agility.
- Develop a Smart Manufacturing Mindset aligning education, workforce development, and continuous improvement strategies to create data-driven cultures. Goal: organizational structures that align resources and people.
USCAR engaged CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute – to aid in the development of the roadmap. CESMII has a total investment of $140M from U.S. Department of Energy funding and public/private partnership contributions.
“The ‘Roadmap for Automotive Smart Manufacturing’ is a strategic initiative to enable sustainable smart manufacturing for our USCAR Members and their suppliers,” said Dr. Steven Przesmitzki, executive director of USCAR. “By working with CESMII, we are able to leverage not only their expertise, but relationships with their members, the U.S. Department of Energy, and additional industry contacts to promote smart manufacturing as a critical enabler for advancing and improving U.S. automotive manufacturing processes.”
Plans are in the works for members of the roadmap’s research team to present their findings as part of a workshop on April 15 in Detroit. To be added to the notification list for this event, please email manufacturing@uscar.org.
About USCAR
USCAR is the collaborative automotive technology company for Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Stellantis. The goal of USCAR is to further strengthen the technology base of the domestic auto industry through pre-competitive research and development. For more information, visit www.uscar.org.
About CESMII
CESMII – the Smart Manufacturing Institute – has a total investment of $140M from Department of Energy funding and public/private partnership contributions, with a mandate to create a more competitive manufacturing environment here in the US. CESMII is one of 17 Manufacturing USA institutes on this mission to increase manufacturing productivity, global competitiveness, and reinvestment by increasing energy productivity, improving economic performance and raising workforce capacity. University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is the program and administrative home of CESMII. For more information about CESMII, its history and Smart Manufacturing, visit cesmii.org
Connected Workforce
Collaborative strategies enabling plants connected to the enterprise and supply chains for real-time data-driven business orchestration.
Goal: flexible and agile processes and supply chains easily reconfigured for changing market demands
Modern Manufacturing IT Infrastructure
Enable innovation through application and data interoperability based on standardized, open interfaces that eliminate data silos, stovepipe architectures and vendor lock-in.
Goal: reduce complexity, and improve efficiency and innovation agility
Smart Manufacturing Mindset
Develop a Smart Manufacturing Mindset™, aligning education, workforce development and continuous improvement strategies to create data driven cultures.
Goal: organizational structures that align resources and people for SM success