BMW Group expands use of innovative Industry 4.0 tech in production logistics
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
The BMW Group is increasingly relying on innovations from the fields of digitalisation and Industry 4.0 in production logistics. This will ensure the company’s global production network continues to receive the parts it needs in a timely and reliable manner in the future.
The BMW Group has a global network of 3,200 suppliers at 4,500 production locations in around 50 countries and every day BMW Group vehicle plants worldwide take delivery of more than 31 million parts! Digitalisation and innovations help the company organise logistics more flexibly and more efficiently. At the same time, almost 10,000 vehicles coming off the production line daily must be delivered to customers around the globe. Digitally connected delivery, so-called Connected Distribution, ensures that these transport routes are also more transparent.
The carmaker’s focus is now on applications such as logistics robots, autonomous transport systems at plants and digitalisation projects for an end-to-end supply chain. Staff can control logistics processes from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets and use virtual reality applications to plan future logistics. Innovations coming out of many pilot projects are being implemented worldwide in logistics at BMW Group plants.
“Logistics is the heart of our production system. Our broad spectrum of ground-breaking projects helps us run increasingly complex logistics processes efficiently and transparently,” says Jürgen Maidl, head of Logistics for the BMW Group production network. “We are taking advantage of the wide range of available technological innovations and working closely with universities and start-ups. We are already working with tomorrow’s Industry 4.0 technologies today.”