CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
3 May 2005
Implementation Investments
ThyssenKrupp Budd Adopts DELMIA Digital Manufacturing Technology; Software Identifies Inefficiencies in Robotic Handling Operation, Resulting in a 25% Reduction of Cycle Time
Dassault Systemes announced that Tier One automotive stampings supplier ThyssenKrupp Budd has begun its Virtual Factory journey with the purchase of DELMIA IGRIP® and QUEST® digital manufacturing solutions.
The company began its evaluation of the tools by using IGRIP to study a tube-bending operation at one of its facilities, where a bottleneck was occurring at the robotic workcell that was loading and unloading the tubes at the bending machines.
The operation consisted of two material-handling robots to unload the tubes from a pallet and then load and unload the tubes into the tube benders before placing the tubes on a transfer table for the next part operation. The IGRIP simulation identified a bottleneck during one of the robotic operations.
ThyssenKrupp Budd continued feeding existing robotic programs into IGRIP and then creating new "what if" scenarios to optimize the current robot cell operation. It studied a number of options, including both the addition of capital equipment as well as changes in the existing process.
"What IGRIP allowed us to do," said Jean Marc Hauss, ThyssenKrupp Budd manufacturing engineer, "was to quickly look at many different options. In addition, it verified the program in the virtual world, so we already knew it was going to work when we hit the plant floor."
The study concluded that the optimal solution involved changes to the existing layout and a reprogramming of the robot tasks. One of the existing robots was repositioned in the cell and reprogrammed to handle additional work. The end effector grippers were rearranged and fencing around the cell was moved. Additionally, it was found that one of the tube-bending machines was running 10 percent faster than the other, so the time was equalized on both machines.
The success of this initial study has led the company to now begin implementing DELMIA QUEST, a 3D digital factory environment for process flow simulation, on three material-handling operations to simulate and evaluate complete assembly lines for accuracy and profitability.
"Our faith in the digital tools was rewarded in this initial IGRIP study," concluded Hauss. "With the type of process savings these tools identify, they will pay for themselves in less than a year."
Headquartered in Troy, Mich., ThyssenKrupp Budd has more than $2.5 billion in sales and is part of ThyssenKrupp Automotive Group whose annual revenues exceed $7 billion, 45 percent of which come from the NAFTA Region. ThyssenKrupp Budd products can be found on nearly 100 current model vehicles. The company produces sheet metal stampings and assemblies, chassis modules and frame components, composite autobody panels and pickup boxes, gray and ductile iron castings and bumpers.
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