The new digital ecosystem comprises a family of software applications, and will be first fully used in the new Factory 56 at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen, Germany - located about 20km away from the Daimler headquarter in Stuttgart.
"This will be one of the most modern factories in the world," said Joerg Burzer, Mercedes-Benz board member for production and supply chain management during a recent digital roundtable with journalists.
The new S-Class will benefit from the cutting-edge MO360 production processes at Factory 56, which will open in September 2020.
Burzer.
"With the MO360 digital ecosystem, you can catch problems in the early stages, and stop them before they turn serious. We can master abnormalities on the production line. Customers benefit from the MO360 digital ecosystem, as we can achieve a much higher quality standard," said Burzer.
Burzer also stated that production efficiency will rise by over 15 percent by 2022, due to improved processes, comprehensive data availability and fast decisions based on real-time data.
"The 15% rise in production efficiency is extremely important to us, and our investments in this will pay off in the long run. We are ensuring the complete digital support of each production staff," according to Burzer.
Within the MO360 digital ecosystem, a family of software applications are connected via shared interfaces.
These applications use real-time data to support the worldwide vehicle production of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
Large parts of MO360 are already in use at more than 30 plants around the world.
The networked plants supply data which the MO360 applications can access.
Factory 56 will serve as a blueprint for all plants throughout the Mercedes-Benz Cars production network.
MO360 makes individual, needs-based information and work instructions available to each employee in real time.
To ensure that all elements in the system speak the same language, Mercedes-Benz uses the Integra control software — from sensor level at individual machines right up to production control, and also in its co-operation with all suppliers and system partners.
Sophisticated cloud solutions deliver scalability and allow extensive big-data processing.
"Organisational boundaries no longer have a role to play. All teams systematically use continuous feedback from production to optimise and enhance the digital tools," said Jan Brecht, chief information officer of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz.
"We can achieve regular software release cycles of just two weeks. For software engineering in the
field of production, that is an absolute record."
Highly digitalised automotive production
Factory 56 is set to redefine automotive production and meet all criteria for fully digital, flexible and sustainable production, with Industry 4.0 technologies and high-speed mobile phone networks.
MO360 also results in inch-perfect tracking of all vehicles in the factory halls in real time, so that each application in the ecosystem knows precisely, at any time, where a particular vehicle is located.
Production data flow fully automatically into digital Shopfloor Management, so that those responsible are aware of the live status of production at any time.
They have fast and focused access to production- and control-related KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), enabling them to react quickly and transparently to what is currently happening on the production line.
Brecht.
Alongside workforce deployment, the KPIs include the "first time capability rate" (all vehicles without rectification work), the production targets per shift or the work in process, which shows how many vehicles make up the target/actual comparison in an area, for example in interior fitting.
Also, in the future, the maintenance of all Mercedes-Benz plants around the world will be connected to the MO360 digital ecosystem with the "Smart Maintenance" application.
This will mean that if MO360 detects that an electric motor in a production facility will soon need replacing, this can be done promptly in a suitable time window before wear and downtimes result in possible additional costs.
Factory 56 is also known as the paperless factory, and it alone will save around 10 tonnes of paper per year.
"Sustainability is one of the cornerstones of our digital strategy," said Brecht.
Mercedes-Benz is also considering making parts of MO360 available to interested partners.
"We are thinking along the lines of Open Source. We will release our MO360 Frontend Toolkit on Github.com in the third quarter of 2020. We are already excited about receiving feedback and, above all, about additional innovations from the worldwide community," said Brecht.
