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Electric vehicles (EVs) and the companies that make them are no longer hidden under a veil of secrecy. We’re now in a full-on race to develop the best technology possible, put it into electric vehicles, and ultimately deliver it to the masses – for drivers, for shareholders, and for the betterment of society.
Today, automotive manufacturers are in a race to develop vehicles fast and get to market with new and innovative ideas before their competitors. But how can they do that? What will give them that advantage? Digital manufacturing is one big way – and here are five reasons why.
1. Modern mindset
The internal combustion engine (ICE) automotive market has been around for a long time and has had more than a century to perfect vehicle production. However, EVs have ushered in a massive shift in traditional thinking. Companies are testing and learning as they go, and they need manufacturers that enable quick iteration and agility. Enter digital manufacturing.
2. Digitalisation x quality
What exactly does digital manufacturing even mean? It’s essentially a tech-driven subset of the manufacturing industry that uses software automation and a network of connected machines to manufacture components, often at speeds that are unheard of in traditional manufacturing. Aside from speed, this digitalisation brings some pretty important additional benefits to automotive manufacturers – particularly quality. Virtually all of the manufacturing steps from part analysis to shipping are recorded, time-stamped, verified and stored indefinitely, meaning robust quality systems that happen fast and transparency from start to finish.
3. Low-volume production
Perhaps the biggest shift in thinking, and one of the largest challenges that manufacturers face, is the low-volume nature of electric vehicles compared to their ICE counterparts. Product developers often face challenges like higher production costs for low volumes, if they’re even able to get a manufacturer to take the contract. Traditional manufacturing business models really require volume to make the processes cost effective; at low volumes, you either pay a significant premium or you don’t get a quote at all. Digital manufacturing effectively eliminates the manual cost drivers that you find in traditional manufacturing, meaning quick turnaround and low-volume production isn’t just OK, it’s what we were built for.
4. Single supplier
When you need to move quickly, the last thing you want to do is switch suppliers. However, it’s rarely as easy as just sticking with one supplier for the life of a component. Different suppliers have different specialties – some focus on speed, some focus on quality, some are low cost, and you can generally choose from only a few of those attributes. The nature of the digital manufacturing process gives it innate value in speed and quality. In fact, the speed at which digital manufacturers can move is what makes them so valuable for low-volume production, an area where they produce at significantly lower costs than traditional manufacturing. In the end, it lets you streamline your product lifecycle from development to production.
5. Speed
Finally, we get to the elephant in the room. The EV industry is growing at a ridiculous pace, and that growth obviously requires manufacturing support. The traditional ICE mindset was comparatively easy to predict and forecast, and didn’t necessarily require speed to be successful. EV however is much less predictable, and requires agility in order to get to market, meet launch initiatives, and ultimately meet shareholder expectations. That means that the entire process needs to happen without sacrificing speed. Digital manufacturing was built for this purpose – combining automation with robust quality provides an ideal low-volume production scenario, without having to remove speed from the equation.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.