The path to adaptable production

The ARENA2036 addresses the current challenges of the automotive industry and develops production-related solutions in close collaboration with industry. (© ARENA2036)

Digitalization, flexible production, and the switch to electric drive: The automotive industry is facing the biggest change in its over 130-year history. How to manage the upcoming transformations will be demonstrated at the 1st Stuttgart Conference on the Future of Automotive Production on September 26, 2019, organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation IPA.

Whether internal combustion engine or electric drive: batch sizes are decreasing, and the variety of options is growing unstoppable. For automotive manufacturing, this development towards "Mass Personalization," i.e., producing individual units at mass production costs, means nothing less than a revolution. Because it has so far been designed for large series— with rigid process sequences and fixed cycle times. But the increasing variety of options demands flexible production.

Producing without a conveyor belt and cycle time — how can that be achieved? If the process sequence differs for each individual vehicle, how can one ensure that each component, which consists of 1500 parts assembled at 500 different stations, is exactly available at the right time and place? The 1st Stuttgart Conference on the Future of Automotive Production on September 26, 2019, will showcase promising new approaches.

Speakers from research and industry

Assembly, infrastructure, quality, logistics, ergonomics, complexity management, strategy & production systems, as well as digitalization: the conference is divided into parallel tracks, each dedicated to a specific focus topic. These are opened with an impulse lecture outlining the problem, followed by speakers presenting possible solutions. The speakers come from universities and research institutions such as RWTH Aachen, the University of Stuttgart, and the Fraunhofer Society, as well as from automakers like Audi and BMW, and suppliers like Continental or Bosch Rexroth.

The event takes place at ARENA2036 in Stuttgart, an Industry-on-Campus project involving the Fraunhofer Institutes IPA and IAO, as well as the University of Stuttgart. In close collaboration with industry, this research factory addresses current challenges in the automotive sector and develops production engineering solutions. During the lunch break, there will be opportunities to network with startups located there.

Assembly without conveyor belts and cycle times

The 1st Stuttgart Conference on the Future of Automotive Production is aimed at specialists and executives from the automotive industry, the associated suppliers, and related research institutions who want to learn about trends and developments in assembly without conveyor belts and cycle times.