Autoliv has joined Foundry!
Automotive safety leader Autoliv has joined Combient Foundry. Their vision for Saving More Lives guides their daily work. Their first five opportunities involve material innovation, supply chain management, automated quality inspection, component tracking, and manufacturing automation.
The new year is here and we are proud to introduce a new Foundry member to kick off our first cycle of 2021. Autoliv has not only recently joined Foundry – they became a member of the Combient network in 2020. We are proud to start work with their teams, not only for their long history in industrial innovation but also for the importance of their work in the global automotive industry.
Autoliv is the industry leader in automotive safety technology. They develop, manufacture and market airbags, seatbelts and steering wheels, which are sold to all leading car manufacturers worldwide. On top of these, the company develops pedestrian protection systems and additional safety features, like safety switches, automatic bolt releases, and future technologies like life cell airbags and Torricelli brakes. Each year, Autoliv’s products are credited with saving over 30,000 lives in accidents.
Autoliv’s success is based on over 60 years of driving technology innovations in vehicle safety. Their robust solutions are based on solid research and extensive application skills and are developed in close cooperation with the customers. In fact, a large part of Autoliv’s final product assembly happens in their customers’ assembly plants.
For their first Foundry Cycle, we are proud to present five opportunities with Autoliv, based on their business needs. Check them out below!
Lightweight Materials for Increased Safety
Safety performance, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness are important drivers for Autoliv’s business. The market is changing rapidly – materials that cost less, have a smaller carbon footprint, and are high strength and good in formability, are becoming increasingly available. To continue to provide the best products in automotive safety, Autoliv is looking to work with the best-in-class material startups to integrate new raw materials into their safety products.
Of particular interest are spindles, retractor tubes and mechanical channels, as these are crucial components in seatbelts, airbags and other safety solutions. Reducing their weight has direct implications in cost-effectiveness, performance, and sustainability. We have identified many materials that could help achieve these goals. Read our list below, but don’t hesitate to suggest other innovative materials that could be relevant for the automotive industry.
Read more here.
Supply Chain of the Future
Autoliv is looking to make their global supply chain management more transparent and automated. Their products are often assembled in or close to their customers’ manufacturing plants. A good arrangement, because Autoliv products need to be fed into vehicle assembly in the right order and new orders are received every minute.
Digital tools and automation have the potential to make this process more efficient and streamlined. In order to streamline the supply chain, we have identified a few specific opportunities in supply chain transparency, removing manual work shipping processes, and packaging engineering.
Read more here.
Mark and Scan Components in Manufacturing
The success of Autoliv builds on top of world-class manufacturing operations. In assuring standardization and high quality, and to maintain proprietary production technologies, Autoliv’s production systems are often developed and sometimes manufactured by Autoliv itself. To further automate and improve Autoliv’s world-class manufacturing, we are seeking solutions to mark, scan, and identify even the smallest components in our manufacturing processes process.
Autoliv strives to perfect manufacturing processes and product documentation. To manage complexity, digital systems exchange data with upstream suppliers and customers to further increase supply chain transparency and traceability. It’s these systems we are looking to add new value to.
Read more here.
Real-Time Quality Inspections in Manufacturing
Autoliv has unparalleled focus in quality, which has made them the market leader in automotive safety today. Extensive quality management, control and inspection is practiced throughout the supply chain. Currently there are multiple solutions driving towards the next paradigm shift in instant quality inspection. What Autoliv is most interested in is zero-defect manufacturing processes.
Our skilled production line operators should receive real-time and accurate feedback on how their actions affect end-product quality. We envision an adaptive learning system that crunches different sensory inputs, such as optical video camera streams, to provide the needed feedback. In the long term, the system could learn how to improve the production process itself.
Read more here.
Steering Wheel Manufacturing Automation
Building steering wheels is a precise and manual art. With customer needs evolving, we want to lead the way in steering wheel manufacturing to ensure our operators’ safety and efficiency. We are seeking tools and processes that go above and beyond the demanding needs for building the best steering wheels in the world.
When making a steering wheel, an operator takes up to one hour to glue and sew the wrapping on the final product. It’s these operators’ work we are looking to make even safer and more efficient. Your solutions may be handheld or robotic, as long as it helps us achieve our goal.
Read more here.