The automotive industry is one of the biggest industries by earnings in the world. The high price tag of cars creates high expectations among consumers for product quality and customization, which in turn leads to the intricacy of the production process. Adopting smart factory solutions is one of the methods for automotive manufacturers to ensure that the quality of their products meets consumer demand.

Digitization and increasing automation are giving rise to disruptive technology-driven trends in the automotive sector, such as mobility, self-driving, electrification, and IoT. Most industry leaders and experts agree that these trends will reinforce and accelerate disruption in the automotive industry-leading continuous improvement process.

According to Capgemini's 2019 report, automakers have invested in an average of around 2.2% of revenue in smart factory programs, with a predicted rise to 3.5% by 2023…higher than the manufacturing average. Digitalization takes the production process to a new level, bringing convenience, productivity, and operational efficiency to the production floor, creating competitive advantages for industry-leading automotive manufacturing giants. An internal focus on process improvement and customer satisfaction leads to continuous sales growth despite disruptions in the market.

New technology benefits in existing production facilities include:

• Use modern technology to complete complex tasks at a lower cost and better quality
• Improved Quality Control (QC) at the early stages of the production
• Higher productivity and cost reductions achieved by using real-time data

Accelerating Technology Disruption in the Automotive Market

Digital technologies, from automation, seamless connectivity, to personalization, are moving the automotive industry forward by bringing disruptive changes in the structural processes. These changes result in an increasing level of automakers' collaboration at multiple levels both in and outside the ecosystem. From suppliers and competitors to other industries, the new cooperation models evolve. Innovation is challenging industry fundamentals, from company values and proposition to cost factors and product life cycles. One example is the active use of predictive maintenance to help fleet managers, car dealers, and repair shops to predict vehicle issues in advance using the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. Changes involving technology improvement are upending the automotive industry and its traditional processes.

Digitalization Across the Value Chain

Digitalization across the value chain (full product lifecycle from assembly to after-sale repair and maintenance service) takes production to a new level. The industry ecosystem has been interrupted by the growing amount of data, IoT technologies, and increasing connectivity across the value chain it brings. From consumer and market research to transforming manufacturing processes by applying robotics, the power of digitalization is substantial. Managed, it can be a significant source of competitive edge. But it must be carefully managed not to avoid any risk. Automotive manufacturers, vendors, infrastructure, and connectivity companies leverage their access to vehicle data to drive innovation gradually. Digitalization and connectivity help to establish a unified platform for managing all the crucial processes across the value chain.

High-Performance and Durable Computing Solutions

The adoption of mobility solutions brings some benefits to manufacturing companies, including improvement in enterprise processes and increased capacities and long-term revenue boost. However, not all computer hardware is ready for the challenges of such a demanding environment. Computer hardware tailored for automotive manufacturing must be durable enough to withstand the rigors of a factory floor. Winmate offers fully-rugged mobile and embedded computing solutions tailored for the automotive industry that helps to transform the physical into real-time, digital intelligence seamlessly.

The technology improvement is driving the automotive industry into the fast lane leading to excellent results and quality records as well as extraordinary service and support over the years.