Conference - ASSEMBLY ENGINEERING 2011

English/German simultaneous translation

22 - 23 February 2011
Bad Nauheim, Germany

Optimising the puzzle

With its multitude of finely tuned production processes, vehicle assembly probably represents the most complex field within automotive production. Intelligent planning and organisation
of the assembly steps and developing time-efficient, cost-efficient and robust assembly processes is among the top manufacturing priorities of every automotive OEM.

In contrast to, e.g., the press plant, body shop or paint shop, where, in volume series production, almost full automation is state-of-the-art, the degree of automation in assembly today typically is only at 5 to 10%. And that is for a reason: Many of the assembly steps require so much sensitivity, flexibility and a "feel" for the process, that, despite all progress
in robotics and despite the high cost of human labour, manual assembly, carried out by humans, still is the most efficient and reliable way to build cars.

All the more, it is highly important for OEM to deploy their workforce as meaningfully and efficiently as possible, to design ergonomic assembly processes, and to permanently optimise the process technologies, organisation and logistics in order to remain competitive. With all
its complexity, there are still large potentials for efficiency improvement to be realised in vehicle assembly.

Specific key questions addressed by the conference

• Focus on value-added processes: How can the consequent optimisation of the
  assembly process chains and logistics maximise cost reduction?
   
• How can assembly production times be further reduced?
   
• Where and how is it possible to further improve the process ergonomics? What new occupational health findings need to be reflected in assembly processes?
   
• Possibilities for automation: What is viable, what is sensible? What can be achieved
  via an object-coupled mechanisation?
   
• How can novel pre-assembly concepts increase the production efficiency?
   
• What is possible via more intelligent consignment and part logistics?
   
• How can the footprint of assembly lines be minimised?
   

The conference addresses:

Automotive engineers with responsibilities for assembly processes and assembly systems, in the pre-development, development, planning and production of international OEM, as well as from corresponding system suppliers and engineering service providers.

INTERACTIVE
Focus Workshops (in English only)