Rockwell Automation and Chrysler Demonstrate Breakthrough Design and Manufacturing Technology -- Automotive Control System Engineering Time to be Slashed by Over 50 Percent
12 May 1998
Rockwell Automation and Chrysler Demonstrate Breakthrough Design and Manufacturing Technology -- Automotive Control System Engineering Time to be Slashed by Over 50 Percent
In the Future, Manufacturers will be Able to Design a Product and Simulate
its Site of Manufacture all on Computer, Thereby Bringing Products to
Market Faster and with Less Cost than Ever Before
MILWAUKEE, May 11 -- Chrysler Corporation and
Rockwell Automation demonstrated today software that will in the near future
allow manufacturers to not only design a product on a computer, but also
automatically generate the control code software and machine diagnostics
necessary to run the machines that build the products. This generated
software could then be used to accurately simulate how that product will be
built.
This software will reduce an engineering process that now takes years, in
some instances, down to a matter of a few months or weeks. The implication is
that manufacturers in many different industries will be able to use this
technology to bring products to market faster and at less cost than ever
before because a time-consuming and difficult part of the engineering process
will have become automated.
While the new Rockwell Automation software will not reach the general
manufacturing market for at least 18 months to two years, Chrysler and
Rockwell Automation offered a "proof-of-concept" work cell demonstration on
the day prior to the International Automotive Manufacturing Conference and
Exposition, May 12 - 14, in Detroit. Other partners in the development
project and proof of concept demonstration included Dassault Systemes, Deneb,
and P.I.C.O.
The new software has two critical benefits for automated control systems.
First, it automates the design of software programs that run the production
machines, thus saving a significant amount of time and increasing consistency
and quality. Second, it allows designers to simulate whole plants or
processing lines using the actual machine software, something that has never
been done before. Designers will be able to determine the effectiveness of
the software and will be able to quickly make any required improvements.
Computer simulation of the process will help optimize manufacturing
productivity before the first brick for a new plant is ever laid or a new
machine ordered. This breakthrough will help ensure faster, more trouble-free
start-up of a new manufacturing line. It also will help to reduce waste and
improve product quality.
In 1996, Chrysler and Rockwell Automation entered into a five-year
business relationship that, for the first time, brought an automation controls
company into the design phase of a new car. Chrysler's goal was to share
advanced technology much earlier in the process in order to reduce time spent
to design, debug, and start up an automation control system.
The joint proof-of-concept demonstration is the outcome of more than two
years of collaboration to reach Chrysler's goal. Being the inaugural user of
this technology gives Chrysler a significant competitive advantage -- first to
market increases the potential for sales dominance.
While this technology will go first to Chrysler, Rockwell Automation will
subsequently be free to market it to a wide range of manufacturers in various
industries. "As a means of helping Rockwell Automation grow in Europe and in
Asia, not to mention in North America, I'd say this is going to be very
important to us," said Jodie Glore, president and chief operating officer,
Rockwell Automation. "The value this software offers in terms of bringing
products to market faster is unequaled. It will be a powerful means of
differentiating Rockwell Automation from competitors."
Glore also stated that when this software is available, it will be
compatible with Rockwell Automation control system hardware products, which
will help speed its adoption. No costly or long design-time hardware has to
be specially made. Rockwell Automation has devoted the services of 12 to 14
scientists at facilities in the U.S. and Europe for the last two and a half
years on this project.
"The efforts of all the partners contributed to this milestone," Glore
said. "It wasn't Rockwell Automation alone, or Chrysler, or Dassault, Deneb,
or P.I.C.O. It was a unified endeavor that left parochial concerns at the
door. Partnering is as much a trend of the future as is this new technology."
Rockwell Automation brings together leading brands to provide a broad
range of automation solutions that include Allen-Bradley, Reliance Electric,
Dodge and Rockwell Software. For more information about Rockwell Automation
and its products and services, point your web browser to
http://www.automation.rockwell.com
Rockwell is a global electronic controls and communications
company with leadership positions in industrial automation, avionics and
communications, semiconductor systems, and electronic commerce, with fiscal
1997 sales of approximately $8 billion and 48,000 employees. Rockwell's world
headquarters is located in Costa Mesa in Orange County, Calif.
SOURCE Rockwell Automation