<B>Robot numbers rise as costs tumble
Mercedes plant boasts army of 800</B>
By Lindsay Chappell
Automotive News / February 21, 2005
Robots can perform complex tasks such as welding a vehicle's underbody. Mercedes' body shop in Vance, Ala., will use 600 robots. Another 200 will be used in other parts of the factory.
Robots on the march
Facts about robots in the industry
Population surge: 70,000 automotive robots, compared with 59,000 in 2001
Muscle power: Can hoist about 1,100 pounds
Cheap labor: Prices decreasing
Smart workers: Software allows greater monitoring ability
Related stories Chrysler's Ewasyshyn sees smarter plants
When Mercedes-Benz begins production at its revamped U.S. factory in April, the industry will see the latest in robotics.
Mercedes began building U.S. vehicles eight years ago this month at a then-ultramodern factory in Vance, Ala. There, 68 robots gently passed M-class SUV bodies from station to station, and another 12 operated elsewhere in the plant. But after a $600 million overhaul, there will be 800 robots - 600 in the body shop and 200 elsewhere in the plant.
The cost of factory automation has been falling on a scale similar to the decline in prices of home computers in the 1990s. Robots can lift more, work faster and do more complex tasks than in the past.
The Vance project is an example of how automakers are investing in automation. Comau PICO of Southfield, Mich., designed and built Mercedes' 500,000-square-foot body shop.
While the price has dropped, robots are far from cheap. Robots that previously sold for $40,000 are selling for $20,000, says Ray Kauffmann, vice president of sales and marketing for Comau PICO. And adding robots does not necessarily mean a reduction in workers. Mercedes is doubling its work force, which is nonunionized, to 4,000 to handle an expected increase in production.
Increasing automation also requires auto plants to step up to a higher level of employee training for operations and maintenance. Greater technical skills cost time and money to acquire and maintain.
Volume spurs Mercedes
The Vance plant is the largest turnkey project undertaken solely by Comau PICO, Kauffmann says. Neither he nor Mercedes would break down the cost.
Bill Taylor, CEO of the Vance subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc., says the critical issue was Mercedes' planned U.S. volumes. Mercedes built the original factory to produce about 70,000 M-class SUVs annually. The new operation will juggle two models - the M class and the Grand Sports Tourer - at closer to 160,000 units annually.
What the new robots will do is give Taylor more control over vehicle quality and monitoring. In past years, the M class has scored poorly in J.D. Power and Associates quality studies.
"We were a very manual plant before," Taylor says. "But now, we're really taking advantage of the technology that's available."
At U.S. auto plants, the robot population has grown to about 70,000 - up from 59,000 just four years ago, according to the Robotic Industries Association of Ann Arbor, Mich.
But it is not numbers alone. It's better robots, says Frank Ewasyshyn, Chrysler group executive vice president of manufacturing. Rather than custom-building their automation equipment, carmakers are able to buy off-the-shelf systems that are more flexible, less expensive and stronger.
Ewasyshyn says robots are capable of hoisting the equivalent of 1,100 pounds.
"The robotics industry has gone through a tremendous change in the last several years that I think a lot of people have missed," he says. "Now, it is roughly less than half the cost. It is completely programmable. I can do whatever I want with it. It is a standard product. I no longer have that piece customized.
"That opens up a whole lot of possibility in the world of flexibility."
Others join the parade
Other automakers have embraced the technology.
Nissan North America Inc. launched an engine line in Decherd, Tenn., in 2003 that moves various sizes of engines through machining with minimal human contact.
At the same time, heavy robotics enabled Pirelli North America to begin making tires in the United States at low volumes, a move that would have been cost-prohibitive under traditional labor-intensive factory processes.
According to the Robotic Industries Association, North American sales of robotic equipment rose 19 percent on a unit basis in the first nine months of 2004, and rose 13 percent on a dollar basis from the year-ago period. North American manufacturers, including automakers and suppliers, bought 12,367 robots during the period.
Flexing muscles
For automakers, flexibility is king.
In the past two or three years, thanks to gains in both hardware and software, robots can stop and start working without losing their place in an automated production run. That means that a carmaker could interrupt the day's run midvehicle, conduct other activity on the line and then resume the run without missing a beat.
Most of the jobs robots perform are mundane: They weld, they pick up parts and they turn and hold pieces while other robots do something else.
"The more agile the robot is, the faster it can get parts in and out of a spot on the line," says Comau PICO's Kauffmann. "The faster it can make welds, the more work the plant can do with the same number of robots. Fewer robots mean a less expensive factory, which means less cost in the finished product."