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Inplant logistics – Page 7
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ArticleVW turns to Amazon to streamline its supply chain
Volkswagen Group has announced it will use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to automate manufacturing and logistics processes across its network of 122 plants and more than 30,000 facilities that make up the group’s global supply chain.The carmaker said it had signed a multi-year agreement with AWS, the cloud computing unit ...
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ArticleBMW looks to the cloud to boost productivity
BMW has begun using a digital cloud platform built on software supplied by Microsoft to increase manufacturing and supporting logistics productivity. The Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP) is designed to accelerate the use of internet-of-things (IoT) technology in the supply chain and factory. BMW said it would be shared among OEMs, ...
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ArticleVW reshuffles top managers in components operations
Heiner Lanze (pictured) has taken over as head of procurement at VW’s newly independent business unit, Volkswagen Group Components.Most recently, Lanze was responsible for procurement at Volkswagen do Brasil and the South America region. Before that, he was vice-president of procurement at Scania in Brazil. His career in the VW ...
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ArticleŠkoda’s CKD centre puts AR on the map
Škoda Auto has begun a large-scale trial of augmented reality (AR) technology to support logistics in the complete knockdown (CKD) centre at its Mladá Boleslav plant in the Czech Republic.The video mapping system is being used to help staff load sets of semi-knockdown components onto pallets for export, and consists ...
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ArticleAudi trials used car batteries in factory vehicles
Audi is trialling fork-lift trucks and tow tractors powered by used lithium-ion batteries at its main plant in Ingolstadt, Germany.The development is the latest stage in the company's research to find second uses for used batteries. Like all OEMs, Audi is obliged by law to take back batteries once their ...
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ArticleFCA to build new US plant and expand five others
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has revealed plans to spend $4.5 billion on building a new assembly plant in Detroit and adding production capacity at five existing plants in Michigan.The investment will create almost 6,500 jobs, though 1,400 posts will be lost as one shift at FCA’s Illinois plant is cut.The ...
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ArticleJustin Newell joins Inform as COO
German software optimisation specialist Inform has appointed Justin Newell (pictured) as chief operating officer (COO) at its division in the US – Inform Software Corporation. He moves to Inform from his role as general manager at finished vehicle transport provider, Reliable Carriers.Newell has more than 20 years’ management experience including ...
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ArticleŠkoda Scala production starts in Czech Republic
The all-new Scala has started rolling off the assembly line at Škoda’s Mladá Boleslav plant, in the Czech Republic – the first model from the company based on parent Volkswagen Group’s MQB-A0 platform.Production of the Scala, which was designed and developed in Mladá Boleslav, involves certain components being produced in ...
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ArticleQ&A: Scott Krebs, Orbis
What does Orbis see as the main problem in providing accurate data on where a container is, whether empty or full, and what is it doing to solve some of these problems for its automotive customers?In the automotive industry, one of the biggest obstacles is standardisation. Toyota puts identification on ...
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ArticleVW sets up new components division to drive efficiency
Volkswagen has established a new division – Volkswagen Group Components – tasked with reducing costs by €2 billion ($2.27 billion) while improving efficiency and taking on board the increasing importance of electric vehicles. Thomas Schmall (right), chairman of VW’s new Group Components division, with Stefan Sommer, VW Group board member ...
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ArticleThe long way home
For inbound automotive supply chains, returnable packaging just makes sense. No carmaker wants to spend money on wood, paper and cardboard again and again, only to have to fork out straight away for costly waste disposal.
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ArticlePacking a punch
Electric cars could revolutionise transport by providing a cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly way to travel. The International Energy Agency forecasts that there will be 13m electric vehicles (EVs) on the road globally by 2020, while PwC Autofacts predicts that 55% of all new vehicle sales will be fully ...
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ArticleBMW Regensburg named as ‘manufacturing lighthouse’
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has named BMW’s Regensburg car assembly plant as a “manufacturing lighthouse” of the so-called fourth industrial revolution, thanks to the factory’s innovations in logistics.The plant, in south-eastern Germany, is one of just seven worldwide awarded the honour this year for successful implementation of industry 4.0 ...
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ArticleBMW ups the pace on industry 4.0 technology
BMW Group is to expand its use of industry 4.0 innovations in its production logistics, it has revealed. In 2015, BMW Group joined forces with the Fraunhofer Institute IML to develop the first self-driving Smart Transport Robots (STR). Three years later, the carmaker is increasingly relying on innovations from industry ...
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ArticleBMW produces its millionth 3D-printed part
BMW has produced its millionth 3D-printed part since starting to use the manufacturing technology, also known as additive manufacturing, a decade ago. It is one of 200,000 parts the OEM will 3D-print this year – a 42% increase on the number produced last year. While the number is low compared ...
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ArticleZF trials drone deliveries at Friedrichshafen
Component manufacturer ZF has started testing the use of a drone to distribute parts at its main plant in Friedrichshafen, south-west Germany.The prototype is being used to transport spare parts such as sensors and control cards from the plant’s central warehouse to various workshops, with the aim of proving that ...
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ArticleŠkoda tests out drone for stocktaking
Czech carmaker Škoda is trialling an autonomous drone to identify and count containers outside its factory in Mladá Boleslav. The goal is for drone-assisted stocktaking to become a regular feature of operations in the medium term.“We are continuously working on improving the efficiency of our everyday production processes and making ...
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ArticleEnergising the synergising
Renault and Nissan began their wide-ranging alliance and set up cross-shareholdings in each other back in 1999, and since then Daimler, Avtovaz and most recently Mitsubishi have also become part of this evolving structure. Numerous shared vehicle platforms, manufacturing and logistics operations and back-office functions have been developed. Furthermore, impressive ...
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ArticleQ&A: Srini Muthusrinivasan
What is meant by this term ‘the autonomous supply chain’?The word autonomous has got very prevalent today in the industry. [To understand] the idea of the autonomous supply chain, you’ve got to go back to the history of how we went all the way from the industrial revolution to the ...
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ArticleVW starts making Seat Tarraco at Wolfsburg
Spanish carmaker Seat, part of the VW Group, has begun producing its Tarraco SUV on assembly lines at VW’s Wolfsburg factory – the first time in 20 years a non-VW vehicle has been built at the plant in northern Germany.Designed and developed in Barcelona, the Tarraco is built on the ...