Precision Assembly Process Improves Vehicle Quality and Reduces Costs
An innovative process that improves the quality of vehicle body assembly is expected to extend billions of dollars in economic benefits to consumers, the more than 580,000 U.S. firms in vehicle-related businesses, and other industrial sectors that do business with the auto industry or its suppliers. The so-called "2 millimeter" assembly process, implemented initially in five U.S. auto plants and now being transferred to others, was developed through research co-funded by NIST's Advanced Technology Program. The grant was awarded to the Auto Body Consortium, Inc. (ABC), a group of eight suppliers, which performed the research with the help of two universities and matching funds from General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler Corp. By providing a framework for cooperation among tooling suppliers, engineers, assembly line operators, and academic researchers, the ATP project was able to solve a problem that long had eluded resolution because it had so many causes. In the past, U.S. car makers tolerated dimensional variations of up to 5 or 6 mm, a level that often complicated the assembly process, required custom manual reworking, and compromised vehicle "fit and finish." The ATP project reduced the variation to 2 mm or less by inventing an array of new technologies, including hardware and software that optimize the fitting process, a knowledge base of the causes of dimensional variation, and an automated assembly-line monitoring and diagnosis system. The improved "fit and finish" of the vehicles is credited by ABC with improving customer satisfaction as measured by independent market research. An economic analysis of the project, funded by NIST and performed by CONSAD Research Corp., estimates that hundreds of millions of dollars could be saved annually on vehicle production and maintenance. Because vehicle-related businesses employ 7 percent of U.S. workers and every dollar invested in auto manufacturing adds $2.50 to the U.S. economy, the ATP project is expected to have broad benefits extending to many industrial sectors and creating thousands of new jobs. ATP funding: $4,860,000 April 1998 |
