FAURECIA FRAMES
About Faurecia
Faurecia Frames in Wałbrzych is a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers. Faurecia has branches in 35 countries and employs over 100,000 people. employees in 266 plants and 39 research and development centers. The factory in Wałbrzych has been operating on the market for 20 years and specializes in the production of car seats for brands such as Volkswagen, BMW, Ford and Peugeot.
Investment goals
Improved efficiency of Intralogistics processes
Elimination of component mis-deliveries
Synchronization of transport cycles with the manufacturing operations
Challenges
Innovative thinking is part of the Faurecia Frames strategy. Robotization and digitization is seen as an opportunity to constantly increase the efficiency and flexibility of processes. Production at Faurecia Frames is characterized by great diversity. Technically diverse seats are created on many assembly lines, intended for many car brands.
The robotization of intralogistics is an investment in improving the production process. The payback must be associated with specific, measurable effects – improved efficiency, reduced errors, greater flexibility and ease of reconfiguration.
Regardless of performance issues, the technology in the factory must run continuously. Unplanned breaks and delays can costs more than the purchase of new machines.
The goals were specific: to increase the attractiveness of employment in the factory and to use the synergy of human and robotic work. AMR took over the most strenuous, physically demanding and dangerous tasks. This allows people to focus on coordinating supervisory processes and functions.
Each implementation, each innovation has a chance of success if it is seen as a positive change. Gaining the trust of Faurecia Frames employees in the new solution accelerated the implementation and ensured its final success.
Outcomes & results
Significant Improvement of Intralogistics Performance
Elimination of errors in the supply of components to production line
Better fluidity of intra-logistics operations due to the automation and 24×7 availability of transport system
Over 200 Missions a Day
Over 70 Tons a Day
Our project is based of three main pillars: robotization, automation of management processes and automation of intralogistics. Our factory operations cover all stages of the production of car seat frames: welding, painting and assembly. The backbone of this system is intralogistics, delivering uninterrupted flow of components between the warehouse and production cells. Therefore, it has become obvious to us that internal transport will be one of the first areas to be covered by the robotization of production.
MARCIN WÓJCIK
Plant Manager
It quickly turned out that VERSABOTS act as a well-coordinated team of digital workers. Smart machines, under the control of an automatic fleet management system, are timely, reliable and completely predictable. The problem of employee absences or unplanned downtime has disappeared. Currently, it is difficult to imagine the implementation of production processes without the help of VERSABOTS.
BARTŁOMIEJ MAGIERA
Production Manager
By entrusting the robots with the transport of frames from the welding shop to the paint shop, we hung the bar high. We needed machines with well-developed navigation systems, able to cooperate with other participants of the plant’s traffic, as well as maintaining a very high precision of maneuvering. The choice of the VersaBox solution was determined by the perfect navigation capabilities of the VERSABOT robots.
ANNA SOĆKO
Lean Manufacturing & Digital Transformation Manager
We knew the outstanding navigation capabilities of the VERSABOTS and the fleet management system. In practice, a big challenge was to achieve adequate precision and accuracy of the entire process. Excellent communication with VersaBox played an important role here. The are partner who not only offers a reliable product, but understands the needs of industrial production and responds quickly to every inquiry from our side.
TOMASZ BIEL
Plant PC&L Improvement Coordinator
