May 23, 2024

Automotive industry increases quality in manual assembly using AI

The automotive industry is increasingly benefiting from the advantages provided by Artificial Intelligence, going beyond the intelligence needed for autonomous vehicles and various automations in our vehicles.

Artificial intelligence is incorporated into the manual assembly processes of vehicles and parts, monitoring, reviewing, and contributing to improving the efficiency of the service.

Although robots will bring significant improvements and agility to the automotive industry, Elon Musk's observation, highlighted in the TechCrunch article, remains valid: underestimating humans and opting for excessive automation is a mistake, as there will always be activities that robots will not be able to perform.

However, humans can always be trained and work with the help of artificial intelligence, as is the case with Retrocausal's AI solution applied to manual assembly lines.

Companies that manage to adapt teams of human operators, train them, and provide them with the right tools will be well placed to succeed.

If you work in the automotive industry or other industries that have manual assembly lines for parts or kits, Retrocausal's artificial intelligence solution will be the key to increasing process efficiency.

This solution focuses on providing human operators with AI-based tools for training, guidance, and live support, as well as manual process analysis. In other words, you will have a tireless pair of eyes working on manual assembly.

Retrocausal's AI solution generates data for continuous time and motion studies in a new process, such as:

Error tracking on the manual assembly line
Quality control in visually complex assembly processes
Rapid training of temporary workers, ensuring quality delivery from day one

Retrocausal works with Fortune 500 vehicle and parts manufacturers to save millions on individual lines, without requiring them to disrupt their operations. Top vice presidents in the automotive sector have made manual process monitoring solutions a key strategic priority.

See where and how Retrocausal's AI solution is performing and bringing great results on the manual and repetitive assembly line.

Screw tightening check

Operators often forget to tighten some bolts, while tightening twice as many others. Smart torque wrenches can detect the amount of torque applied, but they don't check that it has been applied in the right places. Automakers are using Retrocausal's AI solution for this check on engine blocks, among other sub-assemblies. In a typical application, we were able to detect 83% of these quality problems while operating with a false positive rate of 0%.

Vehicle sub-assembly line

Retrocausal's AI solution has been deployed on sub-assembly lines for car doors, PHEV assembly, as well as other parts. In these cases, it consistently provided very high detection rates (over 80%) of worker errors.

Mobile assembly line (entire vehicle)

In addition, Retrocausal's AI solution has been deployed on mobile assembly lines, where entire vehicles come down to confirm that the right type of "trunk lid", windshield and other accessories are installed. In these cases, it was possible to halve the number of queue stoppage events.

Operator training

Due to the very high turnover rate, manufacturers must train tens to hundreds of new assembly workers every month. The training costs are enormous, and the lack of training opportunities leads to defects on the production line.

In these cases, the AI solution is used both as a direct training tool and to measure the proficiency of new operators to speed up their integration.

We have consistently shown that we can halve the time needed to integrate workers in highly sophisticated scenarios. In fact, this engineered orientation tool was built to allow operators to be productive within minutes of arriving at a workstation for the first time.

How is this even possible?

Firstly, because with a few videos of the manual process, the Artificial Intelligence learns the process and starts to monitor each stage of the manual assembly!

Then, whenever a step is not carried out correctly, the solution emits audible alerts so that the operator can correct the execution according to the guidance shown on the screen in front of the operator.

In this way, we guarantee 100% efficiency in the manual assembly of products and parts kits, even for new operators.

Would you like to have all these benefits in your industry too? Get in touch with us!

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