INESC Porto promises to revolutionize European automotive industry

AC-DC project is concluded with “extremely encouraging” results

INESC Porto is part of a European consortium that developed methods that make it possible for a car to be built in just five days, a process that usually requires weeks or months. Started in 2006 by the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Unit (UESP), the project AC/DC – Automotive Chassis Development for 5-Days Cars ended in September is characterized by its ambition to improve the industrial capacity and to reduce stocks, always putting the customers’ requirements ahead. BIP interviewed Jorge Pinho de Sousa, manager of UESP and leader of INESC Porto’s team in this consortium, who told us about the project that will bring a significant contribution towards the revolution of the European automotive industry.

A customized car in just five days

INESC Porto is part of a European consortium created to develop methods that make it possible to manufacture a customized car in just five days. Led by Continental Teves AG (Germany), and with the participation of large companies in the automotive industry like BMW, Volkswagen, Siemens, ZF,all from Germany, the project also includes scientific partners and consulting institutions, such as CARTIF (Spain), ERPC, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, University of Paderborn, VDIVDE-IT and ATB, from Germany, MTA SZTAKI (Hungary), Mandator (Sweden), UNIMORE (Italy), and INESC Porto. Within AC-DC it was possible to develop a set of concepts and methods that make it possible to improve car manufacturing processes.

According to Jorge Pinho de Sousa, this project was “the result of the growing challenges that the automotive industry has been facing, in more and more dynamic environments, with higher levels of uncertainty and competitiveness”. The concept is simple: to manufacture a customized car in just five days, drastically decreasing the time between the order and delivery of the car to the client, a process that usually requires several weeks or even months.

“The main principle is that this process is based on a ‘Customize-to-Order’ and late customization model”, the manager of UESP reveals, and the biggest innovation is the 100% guarantee of delivery and response in productive time to the different client requirements. To achieve this goal, two directions were followed: “one in the area of product and component development, more easily customized, and another in the collaborative planning of the supply networks and in manufacturing control and monitoring”, the professor explains.

Improving industrial capacity and reducing stocks

“To have a highly customized car, normally the client has to wait for months. Since these are medium and high range cars, the client is typically not used to wait that long”, Jorge Pinho de Sousa explains. This happens because currently the automotive industry is based on production-for-stock. Thus, the “project’s general philosophy is to guarantee that this waiting period does not happen and, through significant efficiency gains and higher flexibility, make sure that cars are delivered in reduced period of time”, he also adds.

By making it possible to manufacture a car in just five days, AC-DC allows the supply chain to go from a traditional hierarchic production to a somewhat competitor process based on knowledge, capable of improving industrial capacity and reducing stocks, and allowing a faster configuration of new and more varied quality and low-cost products. This is an important step to put the European automotive industry in the forefront of the competition with the Asian and North-American industries.

INESC Porto participated actively in several tasks of the planning and management component, with significant contributions in the development of the 'dynamic supply loops’ that “take place in the different levels of the supply chain, and from which the procedures to be initiated are originated” in order to enable “a faster response to unforeseen events or the incorporation of different features in each car”, the researcher explains. Other fundamental contribution had to do “with the design and implementation of an innovative messaging service that promotes the collaboration between actors in the chain planning and controlling the operations and, based on this service, “some collaborative management tools were also developed”, the professor highlights.

A breath of fresh air to the European automotive industry

Designed to guarantee an important research component and to strongly involve the industrial companies in the consortium, the project studied “some of the most relevant real problems” that were essential to define the “scope and objectives of the project”, which in its turn constituted a challenge and “an opportunity for the companies to validate their results and to improve their products, processes and procedures”, he explains. Thus, in companies like ZF Friedrichshafen AG products were changed, in this case the cars’ tension carriage systems, with significant gains in the design and manufacturing costs, using, for instance, the simulation of their behaviour, or, in the case of Continental, with deep changes in the collaborative planning systems and process monitoring throughout the entire manufacturing chain.

Other than gains in flexibility “that will allow the European automotive industry to recover a competitive place relatively to the Asian industry, and to overcome the enormous challenges that this sector now faces”, or even the decrease in the amount of time between the car order and delivery to the client, the project also led to the development of “methodologies  and procedures that, by promoting collaboration, allow companies to respond more effectively to uncertainties in the market  and changes in the manufacturing system”, Jorge Pinho de Sousa explains.

“Obviously today, in dynamic and unpredictable environments, this factor is an important asset for the companies’ performance”, the researcher concludes. As an integrated and large project, this project is a breath of fresh air to the European automotive industry, bringing a new drive for competition with the Asian and North-American counterparts.

“Extremely encouraging” results

Since the highest levels of cooperation between partners in the network constitute the foundation for the approach that was taken, it becomes necessary not only to guarantee advanced computer solutions, but also “a ‘culture of cooperation’, involving, for instance, a larger sharing of information that it is quite challenging to disseminate”, the professor explains. Thus, throughout the project, it was necessary to develop advanced technical solutions and procedures “to promote that culture, often fighting old and deep habits”, he reveals.

According to the researcher, despite the difficulties, “the global results of the project were extremely positive and encouraging, with a real impact on companies in the consortium and in the sector in general”. From INESC Porto’s point of view, a significant number of competences were developed, as is natural in a project this large. Furthermore, and even more importantly, “we improved our knowledge of the automotive industry and of the new challenges that this sector faces today. This factor is somewhat paradigmatic and that knowledge will be certainly replicated and reproduced, with positive impacts on the development of innovative projects with other industries in the future”, the researcher reveals with confidence.

Other than the concrete results, globally, the project was “positively appreciated by several companies in the sector, demonstrating the potential of the developed methods”. At the same time, the project was seen as a contribution “to change the ‘attitude’ of the multiple players in the sector, so that more advanced collaboration and information sharing ways are promoted”, Jorge Pinho de Sousa adds. Furthermore, with the “increasing acknowledgement of the importance that these instruments have”, the project is thus a decisive and revolutionary step to overcome “the great challenges that the automotive industry faces today”, the researcher concludes.