Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA
Agility guaranteed thanks to adaptable assembly concept
Efficient, flexible and sustainable assembly concept designed at Voith
In Short
The integration of new product variants at Voith Turbo in Garching places high demands on the existing assembly line in terms of flexibility. Based on a methodical analysis of the assembly system and of the potential to automate, a future-proof, efficient and highly-adaptable assembly concept was developed for batch sizes of one.
In Detail
Voith’s main plant located in Garching is constantly faced with the challenge of integrating new products into its existing assembly lines and assembles them in a highly efficient manner whatever the batch size. This necessitates not only the right general conditions in terms of layout flexibility and process support through automated solutions, but also IT systems and analytics solutions capable of mastering the complexity involved.
An interdisciplinary team made up of experts in the fields of assembly, automation solutions, IT and assistance systems first comprehensively analyzed the current system. Based on this information, the team then went on to develop a concept for a new assembly system.
The existing assembly line was analyzed in detail with our sensor-based process analysis system “LeanDA”.
The various work steps were also examined for potential automation solutions using Fraunhofer IPA’s specially-developed method for analyzing the potential to automate. The resulting information was then utilized to elaborate and evaluate concepts for appropriate solutions.
Based on this comprehensive analysis, and on taking into account:
- flexibility requirements
- logistics processes and
- IT systems for process control and traceability,
an efficient concept adapted to the batch size was developed for the end-to-end assembly of different products.
Thanks to Fraunhofer IPA's flexible assembly concept, in the future Voith Turbo will be able to efficiently integrate new products into the existing assembly system and react agilely to varying batch sizes.
Insight into the project
“The efficient collaboration with Fraunhofer IPA resulted in a comprehensive, modular concept that sets the course for the successful future for our plant.”
Bernhard Penkert
Head of Assembly and Service, J.M. Voith SE & Co KG