Standardisation of manufacturing final assembly lines for body computer modules

Abstract

[EN] Strong pressure on prices, mainly due to the globalization of markets, the de-cline in demand from customers in the current crisis and fierce price competition by competitors, are the biggest challenges for AE-BE division of Robert Bosch Company. For sales growth and return on sales, the Bosch Group needs to achieve a fig-ure of at least 8 percent per year1. But in recent years, Bosch has not reached these targets. The actions to achieve this figure include improving profitability, generating more growth, achieving greater agility, and rethinking leadership and cooperation. One further task is to reduce fixed costs: in other words, the costs that constant-ly reoccur regardless of how many units of a product are sold. The paramount corporate objective remains the same: to secure a strong and meaningful de-velopment for the company. Improving profitability is part of Bosch efforts to achieve this. Greater agility means greater flexibility, as well as the ability to react better to unexpected and rapid change. Actions taken at Bosch to help achieve this in-clude the smart business plan and the Multilanes project, which is designed to give operating units more freedom by allowing more flexibility in the application of Bosch regulations. As part of these developments, the Ansbach plant (AnP) was assigned the func-tion of lead plant for the Body Electronics division in the year 2012 in order to together with other Bosch associated plants, establish an international manufac-turing union, to support this and thereby assume worldwide responsibility here. The products make up a large portfolio with various fast-changing product groups and technologies and are to be found in many Automotive Electronics plants (AE) throughout the world and that are being produced in low cost loca-tions. The right strategy is called for so as to find cost-effective and applicable solutions. The processes at low-cost locations are realized more by manual rather than by sophisticated means, and often there are standard machines and fixture availa-ble to this end. The degree of automation is lower manual workplaces are preferentially used. So that, the design of the products is done under a Poka Yoke approach, in which the operator learns easily and fast the manufacturing process. The Ansbach lead plant is also cost-oriented. Much attention should be given to production costs, of which approximately 70-80% are material costs and the remaining 20-30% are structural costs (= value-adding costs). In order to remain competitive in the global market, the structural costs must be kept low. Currently, the allocation of the manufacturing is based in the so called local for local strategy. The idea behind that strategy is to manufacture the products as close as possible the customer delivery plant. So that, if a customer has a manufacturing plant in China, the production should be allocated in China or in a neighbour country. Due to the allocation strategy, one of the major problems wich is facing the lead plant, is the low load of the productive lines in most of the products. It is repre-sented by a high investment in MAE & EWAK and levels of use below 80% in most of the cases, and even below 40% in some others, situation which makes less competitive the division.