Digital Transformation in the Automotive and Manufacturing Industries
It is important to retrain people so they can tackle the changing priorities in their jobs, say teachers and engineers from GTC in Gothenburg, who work closely with Volvo in Sweden.
Roger, Martin, and Emina, who are teachers and engineers from Göteborgs Tekniska College (GTC), were on a study trip at IÐAN Education Centre a few weeks ago. The group visited Borgarholtsskóli, Brimborg, Veltir, and Arctic Trucks and received a presentation on their operations and innovations. Digital transformation seems to be the major challenge and affects the automotive industry in terms of production, repairs, and service aspects.
Sigurður, the head of IÐAN's automotive division, sat down with them and discussed, among other things, quality issues in production, the fourth industrial revolution, and the main challenges and opportunities related to the rapid development currently taking place within the automotive industry. The conversation touched on, for example, “Smart Maintenance,” which is a very interesting topic.
Emina briefly went over what needs to be in place to promote good production, especially how important quality issues are for manufacturing companies and the importance of active quality control, as this can play a major role in a company's survival in a highly competitive environment. It was also briefly mentioned how smaller companies and workshops can implement and use the processes and methods of larger companies, such as LEAN, to promote better service and more profitable operations. For example, the repair of a damaged vehicle can be viewed as a production line where the relevant steps must take place: damage inspection, disassembly, repair, painting, assembly, and finally, finishing.
Roger and Martin then discuss various aspects of the fourth industrial revolution and how companies can keep up with the technological development that is taking place within car manufacturing. It is important to retrain people so they can tackle the changing priorities in their jobs. For example, an individual who worked in welding may need to learn to program and control a robot that now handles the actual welding. It is also important not to take on too much at the beginning, as not all companies have the right foundation and knowledge and are therefore not ready to dive into the fourth industrial revolution. GTC has been providing advice to companies on how best to tackle these new challenges and has, for example, launched the website edig.nu where you can learn about various things related to digital transformation in production.
