A German automaker entered into a joint venture with a Canton, Michigan-based, provider of metalforming technologies and products to build a press shop of the future.
Porsche AG and Schuler, Inc, have agreed to create a so-called Smart Press Shop as part of a networked Industry 4.0 approach. The new press shop’s pioneering technologies will enable the highly flexible production of complex car body parts, whereby the focus will be on aluminum body panels and small batch production.
“Porsche wants to use the joint venture to lay the foundations for the future of sports car manufacturing,” said Albrecht Reimold, Member of the Executive Board for Production and Logistics at Porsche AG. “We plan to exploit future technologies and innovations in order to make our processes even more efficient. By dovetailing design, development, car body planning, toolmaking, and production within the Porsche Group, we can significantly influence the quality of our sports cars.”
“Porsche and Schuler will be using a press shop that sets new standards in two respects – in terms of manufacturing performance, as well as the digital networking and readability of data streams along the entire production process,” said Domenico Iacovelli, Schuler CEO. “Not only Porsche will benefit from this major step forward, but ultimately other manufacturers as well.”
The systematic further development of process know-how in the field of metalforming will be achieved in part by the end-to-end networking of production data and the use of machine learning. Porsche and Schuler aim to set new standards in the field of predictive maintenance and intelligent production control.
The joint venture will operate as an independent company (GmbH & Co. KG) held in equal proportions by Schuler AG and Porsche. Each of the two companies will invest a double-digit million euro amount in the joint venture. The location of the new company has not been finally decided yet.
