Auto manufacturing rushing to embrace digital tech in post-pandemic, EV era

Between the abrupt reboot brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid transition to electric vehicles, auto manufacturing is showing a willingness to adopt digital technologies and invest in cutting-edge equipment at a level unimaginable five years ago, industry experts say.

It began with the pandemic, said Greta Cutulenco, CEO of Kitchener, Ont.-based Acerta Analytics Solutions. And that newfound eagerness for technology adoption on the shop floor hasn’t let up.

“Everything from improving processes and workflows within their teams, to monitoring their equipment and their processes from a digital perspective and having access to data remotely, all of that has been really accelerating from an investment perspective,” Cutulenco told Automotive News Canada.

The pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of manufacturers that had not taken the leap to Industry 4.0, manufacturing which embraces digitalization and data, said John Laughlin, chief technology officer at Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen). The industry-led organization is steering the federal government’s Advanced Manufacturing Cluster, tasked with fostering innovation and collaboration in Canada’s industrial sector.

“The companies that had those digital capabilities and automation were able to keep [production] going,” and others are now looking to catch up, Laughlin said.

Manufacturers weren’t knocking on NGen’s door when the organization was gearing up in 2018, he said. But post-pandemic, it is seeing an influx of companies pursuing research projects to improve their current manufacturing processes or overhaul their production methods entirely.

At the same time, the transition to EVs has prompted investments for in-plant technologies that most manufacturers viewed as impractical when they were producing the same internal combustion components they had been building for decades, Cutulenco said.

“As they’re putting in [new] lines, there’s no point in not putting in the latest capabilities in data collection and data access,” she said. “It’s coming from the get-go and really making this part of the foundation of how lines are run and operated today.”

About 80 to 90 per cent of Tier 1 suppliers in Canada employ digitization in at least some form today, Cutulenco said, though fewer have advanced to machine learning and artificial-intelligence software tools such as those offered by Acerta.

THE DIE IS GIGA CAST

But as evolving EV design generates demand for new types of components, auto suppliers are doubling down on more than just their digitization and AI strategies.

Linamar Corp., for instance, announced plans in May to open a plant in Welland, Ont., that will house three high-pressure die-cast machines. The company will be the first supplier outside Asia capable of producing large aluminum structural components, often called giga castings. EVs have a “weight issue,” said CEO Linda Hasenfratz, and using the advanced casting technology to take the place of stamped-steel assemblies is a solution gaining automaker attention.

“We’re kind of offsetting the weight of that heavy battery pack, which is like 800 to 1,000 kilograms that you’re hauling around with you,” Hasenfratz said.

Guelph, Ont.-based Linamar has its first customer lined up for the new components in 2025, and Hasenfratz is confident that others will follow as the supplier perfects the new capability.

While giga casting technology has already proved its mettle in automotive, NGen is working with Canadian manufacturers on the next set of breakthroughs. On May 15, the organization launched its latest call for project proposals for manufacturers pursuing EV or fuel-cell development projects.

“It’s not about buying current manufacturing technologies and trying to compete on global markets,” said NGen’s Laughlin. “It’s about making a step change in how we manufacture things for significantly better quality [and] cost.”

NGen plans to invest $35 million on the upcoming series of auto R&D projects, leveraging a further $60 million in corporate commitments.

The spending follows an earlier set of development projects launched in 2021 that included new processes for producing battery cells, lightweight inverters and an array of other EV components.

MAKING IT ALL ‘MESH’

Canada-based supplier heavyweight Magna International Inc. was among the first of NGen’s automotive participants, reflecting the high priority the company places on integrating new digital tools and manufacturing capabilities into its global network of plants.

The issue is mainly one of scalability, said Todd Deaville, Magna’s vice-president of factory of the future, a unit dedicated to the process.

“We are a large global organization with a very wide range of manufacturing processes and technologies,” Deaville said. When bringing in new capabilities, getting them to “mesh with internal offerings” is often the primary stumbling block, he said.

Data collection and digitization that provide “seamless connectivity” from the individual machine level up to production lines, entire plants and the organization as a whole have proved invaluable, Deaville said.

Digital twin technology — virtual representations of real-world production environments where changes can be accurately simulated without risking downtime — is also becoming vital, he said.

“In real time, when a facility is running, we should be able to probe for changes — what could make it better — and do this in the digital world before we bring it to the real world,” Deaville said.

Deaville expects such digital capabilities to become standard across the auto industry over the next few years, as manufacturers also begin wide-scale adoption of artificial intelligence for vision systems and other tools that aid human operators.

“I think AI is going to become something in the future where we don’t really talk about it directly, it just becomes embedded in everything we do and use,” he said. “Just like many other technologies we now take for granted.”