Rockwell Automation Helps Drive Automotive Solutions
17 December 1998
Backgrounder: Rockwell Automation Helps Drive Automotive Solutions
COSTA MESA, Calif., Dec. 17 -- For the auto industry, the
21st century does not have to wait for the year 2000; it is here now. The
future is in the computer aided design systems now detailing 2001 model year
cars and trucks. The future is in an industry that is giving consumers the
ability to select via the Internet the features they want on "their new car."
It's in the steel mills, tire plants, and plastics and aluminum fabrication
centers that are turning out next generation materials. It's in the
computer-controlled machines that stamp door frames and paint fenders in ways
never before possible.
A leading supplier to a wide range of industries, including food,
pharmaceutical, metals, forest products, and petrochemical, Rockwell
Automation is also a prime mover in the auto industry's early entry into the
21st century. Rockwell Automation advanced information and control
technologies make machines intelligent and flexible. Rockwell Automation's
products are the vital link between what the customer wants and the
manufacturing process that delivers it.
Chrysler
Earlier this year, Rockwell Automation and Chrysler demonstrated a
breakthrough design and manufacturing software that may slash automotive
control system engineering time 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. This software will reduce an engineering
process that now takes years, in some instances, down to a matter of a few
months or weeks because a time-consuming and difficult part of that 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 in
May 1998 in Detroit. Other partners in the development project and
proof-of-concept demonstration included Dassault Systemes, Deneb, and P.I.C.O.
General Motors
Each week, the General Motors Grand Blanc Plant in Grand Blanc, Mich.,
converts more than 6,000 tons of raw steel into as many as 580 different
automotive parts. The GM Grand Blanc facility has kept its competitive edge
by constantly evolving to meet the needs of the ever-changing automotive
marketplace.
That evolution requires GM Grand Blanc to adopt new process technology and
creatively set engineering precedents. In fact, GM Grand Blanc Metal
Fabricating Division controls engineering supervisor Jon Yager said, "We're
always looking to add work to our schedule. Our philosophy is, if there's
anything that needs to be stamped or welded together, we'll do everything we
can to take it on."
Two recent examples of GM Grand Blanc's success in surmounting
manufacturing challenges involve two inventive uses of technology to control
motors on a stamping press and welding press. In each case, GM Grand Blanc
worked with Rockwell Automation to cost-effectively retrofit both of these
older machines with advanced Allen-Bradley motor drives. Advanced electronic
control increased output and added greater flexibility, which will help the
systems accommodate future production demands. For example, the 35-year-old
stamping press had been limited to producing steel parts. Now, with more
precise control, it turns out both steel and aluminum components. The welding
line experienced a 50 percent increase in production primarily due to greater
precision. It's innovations like these that will help to maintain this
facility's competitiveness in the 21st Century.
Global Trends
The underlying reasons for the 21st century's early arrival in the auto
industry have less to do with technology than they do with several
far-reaching economic and social trends. Globalization, outsourcing,
reduction of waste, and shorter time to market are trends that are driving
this industry. These trends and technologies' responses to them offer a clear
picture of manufacturing in the new millennium and why it has arrived early.
It is a picture where supplier, manufacturer, retailer or wholesaler, and
consumer are more closely linked than ever before in modern history. It is
the picture of the 21st century.
Rockwell Automation brings together leading brands in industrial
automation, including Allen-Bradley controls, Reliance Electric power
transmission products, Dodge mechanical power transmission components, and
Rockwell Software. Rockwell Automation's unique, flexible approach to helping
customers achieve a competitive advantage is supported by thousands of
authorized partners, distributors and system integrators around the world.
For more information about Rockwell Automation 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,
and electronic commerce with 1998 sales of approximately $7 billion and 41,000
employees. On Dec. 31, Rockwell is expected to spin off to shareowners its
Semiconductor Systems business, which will be known as Conexant Systems, Inc.