Digitalization Is Expensive? Hardly So!

A key demand in production is flexibility – that much is clear. But how can it be implemented economically? One possible answer is a company model developed by Fraunhofer IPK.

Pandemics, wars and disruptions in the global economy are putting pressure on companies worldwide. How can businesses react quickly and appropriately without driving up the prices of their own products and thus wiping themselves off the market? One of the largest electrical appliance manufacturers in the world, headquartered in China, asked themselves this question. They brought Fraunhofer IPK on board to find a solution to their challenges. That was five years ago. »It is not enough to simply relocate production to other countries – rather production itself has to be set up differently,« summarizes Prof. Holger Kohl, head of the Corporate Management division. »It is about modular, flexible and automated production, that, for instance, allows you to switch from manufacturing an angle grinder to producing a drill within a very short time span, as well as reacting just as quickly to global changes.«

Extensive automation – low product costs

In order to realize this for their client, researchers at Fraunhofer IPK started by developing a company model called the »Blue Print Plant Model«. It provided the basis for automation – with no changes to the product costs. »Here, we represent the entire disciplines of planning and control, purchasing, supplier management to the customer, employees and production management as well as automation, based on a core model,« explains Jan Torka, who spearheaded the technical implementation. »We can immediately see how changes affect product costs in this model.« The special feature: Contrary to conventional paradigms, the optimal product costs can be achieved with the highest degree of automation. »Digitalization does not have to be expensive,« concludes Prof. Kohl.

Pilot plant: 45 percent automation

Based on the model, a pilot plant for the assembly of eight different electric power tool types was developed, each with up to 1000 variants. It is now in operation at the Chinese partner company – and achieves a degree of automation of 45 percent. By comparison, the standard in this particular product environment is around ten percent. The pilot plant can be used to manufacture circular saws as well as drills and other products of comparable size. At the same time, it was possible to reduce the changeover time from two and a half hours to just ten minutes.