Leap in production planning at Bosch with Delmia

Automotive supplier adopts digital factory solution to align systems with auto manufacturer Daimler Chrysler.

DELMIA Corp., a Dassault Systemes company announces adoption of DELMIA's "Digital Factory" by Bosch has cemented its relationship with its automotive customers.

One such customer, Dr Emmerich F.

Schiller, head of the digital production area and digital factory project manager at DaimlerChrysler in Sindelfingen, Germany, confirms that the Digital Factory and standardization have resulted in cost reductions of up to 30% for Mercedes-Benz cars in some areas of vehicle planning.

DaimlerChrysler developed a new way of working with its suppliers a long time ago.

Other automotive manufacturers are now following this lead.

While several automotive manufacturers have already achieved substantial success with Digital Factory solutions, truly comprehensive solutions require the active involvement of suppliers.

Therefore, only those who keep pace with necessary standards for speed and reliability will continue in the shrinking group of preferred partners.

Bosch understands that involvement in all product lifecycle processes at an early stage and guaranteed global data exchange increasingly affect the quality of planning and production processes.

The use of DELMIA Process Engineer at Bosch sets a new standard for the supplier industry.

Bosch has lauded the introduction of Co-operative Engineering (COPE), with DELMIA Process Engineer (DPE) at its heart, as a "quantum leap in production planning".

Cost comparisons of complete factory concepts, as well as the ergonomic design of manual workplaces, are now handled using the same database and are supported by COPE/DPE.

As processes continue to get ever more complex, product variety increases, and the number of model variants grows, all links in the chain must be integrated with one another.

Well before the first real part is produced, all sequences must be digitally reproduced by CAD and the production process simulated.

This kind of virtual production permits potential problems to be identified and eliminated before damage is caused and costs are incurred.

In order to uncover other potential cost reductions, it is necessary to take into account the complete process chain and to integrate the partners involved.

DELMIA's impressive series of successes with automotive manufacturers is now being followed by numerous projects in the supplier industry.

DELMIA's kinship with CAD world market leader, CATIA, coupled with its extensive experience in assembly optimization, makes the software house the chosen partner for many.

COPE/DPE provides numerous, perfectly matched, individual methods for production planning that all access a single integrated database via the DELMIA PPR Hub - product design, logistics planning, cost estimates during on-going development, workplace design, time management and flow simulation - are a few examples.

Method application and software usage become more detailed with each progressive planning step.

"The use of DPE at Bosch permits production processes and systems to be planned reliably and in compliance with the essential principles of the Bosch Production System (BPS)," said DELMIA CEO in Germany Dr Raimund Menges.

"Thanks to standardized planning, weaknesses in the concept and design of production manufacturing facilities can be recognized and eliminated in good time.

"This applies just as much to the global design of an entire factory hall as to minute details.

Thus, alternative production concepts can be evaluated through product lifecycle planning for their degree of automation, for productivity, area requirements and sensitivity to fluctuations in the number of pieces produced.

There is no doubt that tools like COPE/DPE will become firmly entrenched as key technologies, particularly in the automotive industry.

They are well on their way to becoming a comprehensive digital factory.

Suppliers aiming to remain competitive will have to deal with this issue," said Dr Menges.

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