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Sylke Becker
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“We have fully embraced Industry 4.0”
Audi Tool Construction works together with machinery manufacturers
on digitisation
Frankfurt am Main, 15 December 2015. – No doubt about it, the world of
tool and mould construction is being transformed. The high-tech state
of the art in Audi’s tool construction operation already includes
intelligent tools, with which the Ingolstadt-based automaker can
translate ultra-stringent design requirements into a dependable
process. Innovations of this kind, however, will succeed only if the staff
concerned are continually prepared to undergo advanced training.
What staff will have to cope with in the future, what role will be played
by collaboration with machinery manufacturers, and why new sources
of information like the Moulding Area at the METAV 2016 are gaining
steadily in perceived importance, these questions are addressed in the
following interview by Michael Breme, who heads Audi’s tool
construction operation in Ingolstadt.
What requirements are automakers currently stipulating for tool
construction work?
Michael Breme: The ongoing challenges for tool construction are
internationalisation, derivatisation, flexibilisation and process reliability.
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The number of derivatives is rising, which entails in its turn a closer
phasing of product launches at different production facilities
worldwide. This means the actual lead times from order placement to
completion of the equipment have been steadily reduced in recent
years, and will continue to be. At the same time, the complexity of
conventional tools and bodywork production lines has increased, since
additional derivatives and models are being manufactured on more
flexible equipment.
With lightweight construction, the stipulations for design become more
exacting
In bodywork manufacturing, the proportion of lightweight components
is rising, with concomitantly more stringent stipulations for design work,
since the geometries involved are becoming progressively more
complex. This demands from us in the field of tool construction new
approaches for maximised process reliability while at the same time
assuring technical availability. New materials are being used in
bodywork construction, such as CFRP, sandwich or magnesium sheets,
aluminium pressure die-casting and hot-forming.
What does this mean for Audi’s tool construction operations?
Michael Breme: With our equipment portfolio, we’re taking these
material-related developments on board, and autonomously designenhancing our concepts and processes. In Audi Tool Construction,
moreover, we run a small-series production operation, and supply the
Volkswagen Group with bodywork components and assemblies for
high-performance automobiles. Here, tool construction is likewise
facing the challenge of cost-efficiently mastering the increasing
number of assemblies against a background of maximised customer
expectations.
Page 3 / 7  METAV 2016
What new technologies are you using to meet and master these
challenges?
Michael Breme: We’ve been using the intelligent tool since 2011, for
example, for large series production, not least for the Audi A8, Audi A3,
Audi TT, Audi Q7 models and the new Audi A4. This means we can
handle ultra-sophisticated design requirements in a reliable process.
Tool design work takes due account of the static and dynamic loads
encountered in the forming operation. Audi Tool Construction is doing
intensive work on simulating the entire process chain – from the
component to the finished body in white. There’s a lot of potential here,
since in future we aim to do without any back-up tools.
What do things look like with the much-hyped issue of Industry 4.0?
Michael Breme: We have fully embraced Industry 4.0 or (as we call it at
Audi) the “smart factory”: for years now, to cite just one example,
remote maintenance of our bodywork production lines has been
performed as standard practice, as has remote maintenance of the
intelligent tools. Industry 4.0 technologies are meanwhile also being
used where we are design-enhancing our shop-floor production
processes. Assistance systems, for example, are supporting our staff with
real-time data from the production line for planning project sequences.
These digital assistants function as a kind of navigation system for route
planning in providing scheduling proposals for complex planning
operations with competing planning goals. This involves issues like
deadline compliance or high machine capacity utilisation. Automation
is being progressed as well: in 2015, we commissioned an automatic
robot drilling line, and expanded the deployment of driverless transport
systems for logistical purposes.
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Control data feedback
Audi Tool Construction has already pioneered the thrust towards the
intelligent tool: how have you digitised your tool construction operation,
and what are you planning for the future?
Michael Breme: With control data feedback from the intelligent tools,
for example: crucial information on the quality of the tool and of the
process is supplied by the control activities of the sensors in the
intelligent tool. This means good PCB batches can be distinguished
from less good ones, for instance, which enables countermeasures to
be initiated at an early stage. No less deserving of mention is system
integration into the quality recording systems of the production
operation: we have recently introduced software tools for this purpose,
which are being continually expanded. These quality tools enable us to
transparently image at any time the quality status of a particular
vehicle project. They serve as a link between tasks entailed by quality
processes and project and capacity planning at Tool Construction.
An important role is also played by global decentralised measureddata acquisition and virtual quality analysis: components, tools and
automobiles can be qualitatively assessed within a few hours in our new
robot-based duplex measuring cell. What’s more, data and empirical
insights can now be fed back during a tool’s lifetime, because the
pressing plant has since May 2015 been integrated into Audi Tool
Construction.
How do you support machine tool manufacturers in terms of
digitisation?
Michael Breme: When new investments are involved, there is close
cooperation between the machinery manufacturers and Audi Tool
Construction. To cite two current examples: the interface definitions for
linking the intelligent tools to the press control system, and joint
Page 5 / 7  METAV 2016
definition of acceptance test criteria.
But what does an automaker with an in-house tool construction
capability think of the Moulding Area and the new concept of the
METAV in Düsseldorf? Will representatives of Audi be visiting it in
February 2016?
Michael Breme: Continual skilling of our staff is a vital constituent of our
corporate success. You can’t manufacture high-tech products unless
you’ve sustainedly embraced the latest state of the art and are keenly
interested in innovations and technical advances. We make a point of
utilising all available sources of information. We shall definitely be
attending the METAV.
Thank you very much for talking to us.
The interview was conducted by Nikolaus Fecht, specialist journalist
from Gelsenkirchen
Number of characters including blanks: 7 076
Page 6 / 7  METAV 2016
Background
Audi AG, Ingolstadt
The company maintains a presence in more than 100 markets all over the globe, and
currently operates twelve production facilities worldwide. Audi Tool Construction plays
an important role here: it covers the entire chain of sheet-metal-part manufacture, and
is thus substantially responsible for the high quality of the bodywork. In addition, Audi
Tool Construction also supplies other brands of the Volkswagen Group with forming
tools and bodywork production lines. More than 2,000 people work for Audi Tool
Construction at the facilities in Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm, Barcelona (Spain), Györ
(Hungary) and Beijing (China). Consolidated sales (2014): 53.8 billion euros; worldwide
more than 80,000 employees.
Further information: www.audi.de
METAV 2016 in Düsseldorf
The METAV 2016 – the 19th International Exhibition for Metalworking Technologies – will
be held in Düsseldorf from 23 to 27 February. It showcases the entire spectrum of
production technology. The principal focuses are machine tools, production systems,
high-precision tools, automated material flows, computer technology, industrial
electronics, and accessories, complemented by the new themes of Moulding, Medical,
Additive Manufacturing and Quality, which are now permanently anchored in what
are called “areas” with heir own nomenclature in the METAV’s exhibition programme.
The METAV’s target group for visitors includes all branches of industry that work metal,
particularly machinery and plant manufacturers, the automotive industry and its
component suppliers, aerospace, the electrical engineering industry, energy and
medical technologies, tool and mould-making, plus metalworking and the craft sector.
Further information: www.metav.de
Moulding Area at the METAV 2016
Moulding, together with tool and mould construction, is one of the most demanding
application categories in the field of metalworking. High-precision machine tools
produce moulds and tools of maximised quality because modern-day customers and
consumers expect surfaces with an upmarket design, particularly in the case of plastic
products. Besides conventional processes, progressively more numerous new process
technologies are being adopted, such as laser-aided manufacturing for finely
structured designer surfaces. The Moulding Area is themed around the specific
requirements involved, and how they can be met by means of innovative production
technology. The partners of the METAV’s organiser VDW are the Tool Manufacturing
Department, a specialist group in the German Engineering Federation’s High-Precision
Tools Association, the German Industrial Designers’ Association (VDID), the Hanser
Verlag publishers and the German-language trade periodical Form + Werkzeug
(Moulds and Tools).
Page 7 / 7  METAV 2016
Your contact persons
VDMA Werkzeugbau
Alfred Graf Zedtwitz
Lyoner Strasse 18
60528 Frankfurt am Main
GERMANY
Tel. +49 69 66 03-12 69
alfred.zedtwitz@vdma.org
pwz.vdma.org/wzb
VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association)
Sylke Becker
Press and Public Relations
Corneliusstrasse 4
60325 Frankfurt am Main
GERMANY
Tel. +49 69 756081-33
s.becker@vdw.de
www.vdw.de
Audi AG
Kathrin Feigl
Press Spokesperson Production
I/GP-U2
85045 Ingolstadt
GERMANY
Tel. +49-841-89-45751
kathrin.feigl@audi.de
www.audi.com
Press Agency Dipl.-Ing. Nikolaus Fecht
Technical texts à la carte – when words fail you
Nikolaus Fecht
Husemannstrasse 29
45879 Gelsenkirchen
GERMANY
Tel. +49 209 26575
nikofecht@erzfreunde.de
You will find texts and pictures on the internet under www.metav.de in Press Service.
You can also visit the METAV through our social media channels:
http://twitter.com/METAVonline
http://facebook.com/METAV.fanpage
http://www.youtube.com/metaltradefair
https://de.industryarena.com/metav