Background
Car manufacturers have started to enjoy a hefty amount of profit since the beginning of the industrial era. Pioneering companies started to mass produce vehicles for personal, family and corporate use. If we are to compare the methods that pioneering companies in the automobile industry use 50 years ago, we will surely be able to see a huge difference.
Why it is being used?
Car manufacturers have anticipated that there will be a tremendous demand for automobiles in the future. So, they developed ways how to make both the supply and demand ends meet. They thought that if they could automate the process of manufacturing their cars, the entire process would be a lot easier and faster. If we are to rely on a purely conventional method, it can take approximately 5-10 days to manufacture a single automobile unit. Now, if we are to utilize the latest technologies, the required time to build a single automobile unit could be reduced to as low as 30 hours.
How it is being used?
Car manufacturers such as BMW currently use robots to speed up the production of cars. Over 90 percent of the entire manufacturing process is performed by robots. The remaining 10 percent (sometimes less) is done by the factory workers. From the manufacturing and assembling of car bodies, up to the last part of the manufacturing process which is usually the installation of the engine and upholsteries are done by mechanical robots. The factory workers are only assigned to check for the quality of the car body’s surface. Every surface and angle of the car has to be checked by human hands. If there are bumps and metal deformities, the car will automatically be rejected and will later on be recycled. Everything else is done by the mechanical robots installed inside the facility. The final phase of the manufacturing process is the engine benchmarking. Here, the engine’s performance is tested by a human driver using a dynamometer.
When did it start?
Car manufacturers began to fully automate their factories in 2003 (Kochan, 2005). Of course, they started to automate their process a lot earlier than this date.
List of Car Manufacturers who have their factories fully automated
1. BMW
2. General Motors
3. Ford
4. Mitsubishi
5. Subaru
6. Dodge
7. Shelby
8. Honda
9. Toyota
10. Hyundai
11. Aston Martin
Works Cited
Kochan, A. (2005). Industrial Robot: An International Journal: BMW uses even more robots for flexibility and quality.
