from WARDAUTO
In so-called “Industry 4.0”, manufacturers leverage data to enhance productivity, quality and safety, although the automaker will selectively apply principles of the fourth industrial revolution rather than diving in with both feet. “There will be technology that will transform our business,” says Dan Grieshaber, GM’s director-global manufacturing integration. “But we won’t do it just because we can.”
General Motors’ efficiency and precision efforts have collaborative robots safely assisting human operators to aim headlamps and calibrate radar for adaptive cruise control. That work previously was done by less reliable, more cumbersome technologies that ate up floor space and employee hours. Calibration of the radar units takes just three seconds with the robots.
Grieshaber says GM continue to work on major innovations for the factory floor, such as artificial intelligence for manufacturing, and says the automaker’s deliberate strategy of following Industry 4.0 on a continuüm rather than wholesale is the smart move: “We’ll apply it where it works best”, he says.
