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Performance
of 50 Completed ATP Projects
Status
Report - Number 2
NIST SP 950-2
Chapter
6 - Manufacturing
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Auto
Body Consortium
(Joint Venture, formerly 2mm Auto Body Consortium)
A Systems Solution to a Quality
Problem in Auto Body Manufacturing
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| Just
a few millimeters make a big difference on an automated assembly line
as doors, hood, windshield, wheel housings, and other parts are installed
on a body-in-white (BIW), the partially completed body of an automobile.
If BIW openings are slightly off kilter or parts vary much from specifications,
the overall fit and finish of the completed car suffers. When dimensions
vary more radically, a BIW may have to be custom-assembled by hand.
In addition, if the variations grow too large, the entire BIW may
be pulled from the assembly line and junked. |
COMPOSITE
PERFORMANCE SCORE
(Based on a four star rating.)
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| Assembly plant
staff members monitor operations using real-time analysis tools developed
in the ATP project. |
Toward
a Tightly Fitted Car Body
In contrast, a tightly fitted car means fewer defects, less time and money
for factory repairs, better appearance and performance for the owner,
and lower long-term maintenance costs. And the quicker assembly-line changeovers
can be made while retaining tightness of fit, the faster new models can
be introduced at reasonable cost.
A U.S. Problem Overcome
The problem of dimensional variation has cost the U.S. automotive industry
dearly in product quality, wasted materials, increased production time,
and lost sales. While European automakers were building cars with dimensional
variations less than 2.5 mm and Japanese anufacturers were achieving results
at or below 2 mm, U.S. producers were assembling cars with as much as
5- or 6-mm variation. But with completion of ATP’s “2mm Project”
in 1995, American automakers have shown a marked increase in their ability
to assemble cars with world-class precision. In all five Chrysler and
General Motors (GM) auto assembly plants where the new methods were tested,
overall dimensional variation was brought down to, or below, the 2 mm
standard. In addition, other technologies developed by the project have
yet to reach the assembly line, and their full implementation in auto
body plants promises to reduce dimensional variation even further.
Lower Production Costs
With an investment of $4.9 million from the ATP and $9 million from the
automobile industry, the 2mm Project developed
a number of interrelated technologies and processes that have already
cut net production costs (actual costs less the cost of implementing 2mm
technologies) by $10 to $25 per vehicle in plants where they have been
tested. When full adoption by all GM and Chrysler assembly plants is achieved
— probably by the year 2000 — annual production cost savings
are projected in the range of $65 million to $160 million on the current
production volume of 6.5 million vehicles, which amounts to 48 percent
of the cars and light trucks sold in the United States. Some of the cost
savings are likely to be passed on to consumers as a result of competition
among U.S. and foreign producers in the new vehicle market in the United
States.
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| The computer
display for one of the many diagnostic procedures provided by the
new dimension control system. |
Less Maintenance,
Faster Launch
Cars and trucks built with 2mm Project innovations should also cost less
to maintain as better body fit results in reduced wear, less rust, and
fewer other problems. These savings are estimated to range from $50 to
$100 per vehicle over its useful lifetime. Several years after GM and
Chrysler have fully implemented the 2mm Project results, total maintenance
savings are expected to reach $325 million to $650 million per year based
on current production volume. And, although a dollar value has not yet
been estimated, the new technology is expected to decrease the time required
to launch new auto models.
Higher Quality and
Lower Costs Mean Increased Market Share and Jobs
In addition, assuming the 2mm Project quality and cost improvements lead
to at least a one percent increase in market share for GM and Chrysler
(at the expense of vehicles built abroad), economic projections show an
overall increase in U.S. economic output in 2000 of more than
$3 billion and the creation of around 70,000 new jobs. These estimates
take into account the impact of an increase in vehicle sales on related
sectors, but they do not include any increases due to adoption of 2mm
technologies by companies outside the auto industry.
Collaborative Research
to Solve a Complex Systems Problem
The 2mm Project was initiated by the Auto Body Consortium (eight small-
and medium-size companies that provide tooling and engineering services
for auto body assembly lines), two big auto manufacturers (Chrysler and
General Motors), and two universities, one a joint venture partner, and
the other a subcontractor. The joint venture treated BIW dimensional variation
as a systems problem, selecting 11 subprojects, or tasks, to be accomplished
in four general areas. Separate task groups, with staff from various joint
venture members, worked on each subproject. After the operational tasks
were completed, the final task of the 2mm Project was to synthesize the
information, processes and lessons learned from the research and incorporate
the results into a user-friendly database to help companies adopt the
new technologies and methodologies and establish an infrastructure for
future improvements.
The 2mm Project would
have been difficult to achieve without the involvement of the ATP for
several reasons. Dimensional variation in auto body production is a systems
problem that could not have been solved by any 1 of the 11 project members
alone. The ATP encourages formation of joint ventures like the Auto Body
Consortium to solve complex systems problems. The public/private partnership
was helpful in the face of a long history of federal antitrust enforcement
that has left automakers fearful of cooperating with each other without
federal government involvement. Assembly line suppliers are generally
small- or medium-size companies without research budgets large enough
to fund work of the type undertaken by the 2mm Project, and automakers
have been reluctant to fund research by their suppliers. The fact that
development risks were unevenly born by consortium member firms was another
obstacle that ATP participation helped to overcome.
ATP’s participation
in the 2mm Project proved critical to the formation of this research joint
venture. The ATP
provided the catalyst needed to overcome multiple barriers. ATP’s
financial contribution helped small- and medium-supplier companies pay
for an expanded university effort while large assemblers provided most
of the industry cost share, to cover their own expenses and joint venture
overhead.
The 2mm Project shows
how small- and medium-size supply companies, large auto producers, and
universities were able to cooperate in the development of an integrated
system to reduce dimensional variation in body assembly and to improve
the quality of the final product. It also demonstrates the unique role
that comparatively modest investments of money and leadership by ATP can
play in catalyzing complex, cooperative research ventures that pay off
handsomely in technological and economic returns.
Widespread Adoption
Underway in Auto Plants
The new approach to tighter dimensional fit has been put into use in 6
of 10 Chrysler plants and 16 of 31 GM plants in the United States and
Canada, and it is being transferred to the remaining GM and Chrysler plants
and to Ford Motor Company through the supplier chain.
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Project
Highlights
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PROJECT:
To develop improved measurement technology and process control needed
to achieve tighter fit — as well as better quality and lower
costs — in auto bodies and other products assembled from sheet
metal parts.
Duration: 9/1/1992 — 10/31/1995
ATP Number: 91-01-0177
FUNDING (in
thousands):
| ATP |
$4,487
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43%
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| Company |
6,048
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57%
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| Total |
$10,535
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
The project achieved the R&D goal of developing measurement
and process control technology, which participating companies verified
in several in-plant tests. Widespread adoption of the technology
is now underway in auto assembly plants. Indicative of progress,
the companies:
- cut dimensional
variation in auto body assembly to a world-class standard of 2
mm or less and demonstrated the reduction with existing workforces
in all five plants initially targeted by the project;
- reduced production
costs by $10 to $25 per vehicle at two plants initially adopting
the technology, savings that are expected, according to consortium
staff, to be applied eventually in plants which produce all 6.5
million cars and light trucks produced annually by Chrysler and
General Motors;
- reduced expected
future maintenance costs by an estimated $50-$100 per vehicle;
- published
several papers in professional journals;
- published
The Capture and Communication of Knowledge: A Lessons-Learned
Approach, a manual that will speed the adoption of the technologies
and processes developed during the ATP project by showing how
to implement them;
- worked with
the University of Michigan to begin transferring the technology
to other GM and Chrysler assembly plants beyond the original five,
implementing it thus far in 22 plants in the United States and
Canada;
- generated
via ISI Automation Group (formerly ISI Robotics) the spin-off
development of a new type of clamp, called the SofTouch, for holding
sheet metal parts during assembly; and
- provided
member auto assembly companies a quality peg on which to hang
marketing literature — Chrysler highlights the fact that
its new Concorde “literally has a two-millimeter body.”
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COMMERCIALIZATION
STATUS:
Some supplier companies have incorporated the new measurement and
process technology in assembly line equipment, and the new approach
to tighter fit has been put into use in 6 of 10 Chrysler plants
and 16 of 31 GM plants in the United States and Canada. Net production
cost reductions of $10 to $25 per vehicle are estimated to have
already been achieved using the new approach, meaning millions of
dollars saved per year. Higher-quality vehicles from these plants
are becoming available to consumers, and U.S. manufacturers are
expected to increase their market share.
OUTLOOK:
Because the technology is being used and being systematically transferred
to additional plants, the outlook is excellent. It is now being
transferred to all Chrysler and GM plants, and through the supply
chain, to Ford Motor Company. The technology is expected also to
be adopted or adapted for use by other discrete manufacturers in,
for example, the appliance and furniture industries. Auto assembly
companies that adopt this new technology can expect to save hundreds
of millions of dollars annually in production and maintenance costs.
Consumers will benefit from higher-quality vehicles and will likely
see some of the manufacturing cost savings. Producers and consumers
are expected to benefit from yearly savings of up to $650 million
in auto maintenance costs. Quality improvements resulting from the
project have been projected to boost U.S. industrial output by the
automotive and related industries by more than $3 billion in 2000
and to create thousands of new jobs. To the extent the quality improvements
extend to other manufacturing industries, the output and employment
effects will be even greater.
Composite
Performance Score:
COMPANY:
Auto Body Consortium
(joint venture lead; formerly 2mm Auto Body Consortium)
2901 Hubbard Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Contact:
Ernest Vahala
Phone: (734) 741-5905
Joint venture
participants: CDI-Modern Engineering; Classic Design, Inc.;
Detroit Center Tool, Inc.; ISI Robotics; Perceptron, Inc.; Pioneer
Engineering & Manufacturing; Progressive Tool & Industries,
Inc.; Weber Technologies, LLC; Chrysler Corporation; General Motors
Corporation (GM), Technical Center; University of Michigan, MechanicalEngineering
and Applied Mechanics.
Subcontractor:
Wayne State University
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Return to Table
of Contents or go to next section.
Date created: April
2002
Last updated:
April 12, 2005
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