IndX has begun an exciting digital transformation project for one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. Not only does this major player dominate the Automotive industry by producing about 10 million vehicles per year, but they are also making new strides in the Electronics, Batteries & Semiconductors industry related to electric vehicle (EV) battery production. With plans to launch an EV battery plant in North America, the automotive leader chose IndX’s Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) practice to identify, implement and integrate the right digital solutions for their new facility.
The Customer’s Need
As part of a larger strategy to eliminate carbon emissions from their vehicles and enterprise operations by 2050, the customer wanted to expand battery production for hybrid and electric vehicles at one of their North American plants. However, the existing Information Technology ecosystem at this facility was custom-built and could not effectively manage and share data across the Digital Thread with the new addition of EV battery manufacturing. To address this challenge, the automotive leader sought an off-the-shelf solution that could standardize their shop floor for consistent information flow and provide holistic production visibility. These new solutions also needed to contribute to the customer’s goals of achieving the maximum throughput, tracking production issues in real time, minimizing quality losses and producing the best EV batteries on the market.
- Standardize shop floor processes and integrate manufacturing systems
- Enable a consistent flow of information across the Digital Thread
- Gain holistic visibility of production processes and digital ecosystem
- Track and address production issues in real time
- Minimize quality losses and produce cutting-edge EV batteries
About the Project
IndX’s MOM team specialized in Discrete Manufacturing has already started working with the automotive leader to achieve their sustainability and digital manufacturing goals. First, our experts visited their facility to conduct Industry 4.0 Assessments, understand their business requirements and provide architecture design support, such as mockups, workflows and data contracts. Our team identified the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio as the best solution suite to meet the battery manufacturer’s unique production needs, as it contains highly configurable and integrated solutions such as Siemens Opcenter, Siemens Teamcenter, Siemens Industrial Edge, Siemens Digital Logistics and Mendix.
In the next stage of this digital transformation initiative, our MOM Discrete team will assist in the configuration and development of these solutions for the customer’s production needs. Our experts will provide continuous rollout support, manage application maintenance services and conduct cutover activities as the old systems are phased out and new Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solutions are simultaneously implemented. Further down the line, we anticipate the integration of the MES solutions with the customer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) functions. With the goal of early 2025 for a full launch, IndX plans to be there every step of the way to help this EV leader achieve their vision for optimized and sustainable vehicle manufacturing.
- Conducted on-site Industry 4.0 Assessments
- Recommended Siemens Xcelerator portfolio solutions
- Planned phased implementation with simultaneous cutover activities
- Planned rollout support and application maintenance services
- Planned integration between MES, ERP and PLM systems
