Following high demand from the automotive industry, Dürr is further expanding its position in supervisory control technology. In the
BRIC States Dürr’s in-house EcoEMOS software has also been ordered in around 90 per cent of all the group’s major plant engineering projects in the last five years. In China the program is in use by all but one of the car-makers who use Dürr systems for painting and assembly operations.
The supervisory control system collates data from the controllers in a plant’s individual production sections. The entire manufacturing process can then be efficiently controlled and monitored.
Dürr is the only manufacturer of paintshop systems offering its very own supervisory control system software. In further developing the program, the group can draw on its proximity to the automotive industry and its knowledge of the production processes used. Thus Dürr is able to address the special requirements of the automotive industry faster and more precisely.
Among the car-makers using EcoEMOS in multiple plants are Volkswagen, Hyundai and Ford. Sales of the software have been particularly buoyant in the emerging markets. One reason for this is that up-and-coming automotive manufacturers in particular like to purchase the system hardware and control technology from a single source. “This means that our customers receive not only state-of-the-art production systems but also a software tool tailored to it, which enables a variety of analyses and evaluations at the plant management level,” explains Manfred Weil, Head of Dürr’s Paint and Final Assembly Systems business unit.
EcoEMOS from Dürr consists of up to 16 modular solutions which share a common platform. The most frequently used modules are “Monitoring” and “Management”. While Monitoring provides at a glance information on the system status, for example, the spray booth temperature, the number of car bodies and the material consumption, the Management evaluation tool aggregates this information into meaningful production indicators to assess performance and efficiency of the plant.
The other frequently ordered modules are “Storage” for managing vehicle body stores and colour and model sequences in production, “Andon” which enables the causes of line stops to be identified, and “Energy Efficiency” which evaluates and lowers energy consumption.
EcoEMOS is now used at over 60 automotive plants in 20 countries. It is offered not just for system orders, i.e., when paintshops and assembly plants are being constructed, but also increasingly as a standalone solution. In a number of plants EcoEMOS already functions as the overall shop-floor IT solution for the bodies-in-white, paintshop, final assembly and storage. “This extensive use is based on the fact that EcoEMOS allows problem-free linkage to a range of PLC systems,” says Manfred Weil.
Dürr transacts sales worth millions of euros with EcoEMOS. In future, control system software is also to be offered to truck manufacturers, the aviation industry and to producers of engines and gearboxes.
Dürr is a mechanical and plant engineering group that holds leading positions in the world market in its areas of operation. It generates a good 80 per cent of its sales in business with the automotive industry. It also supplies its innovative production and environmental technology to the aircraft, machinery, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
The Dürr Group operates in the market with four divisions: Paint and Assembly Systems plans and builds paintshops and final assembly systems for the automotive and aircraft industries; Application Technology provides automated paint application, sealing, and glueing with its robot technologies; Machinery and systems from the Measuring and Process Systems division are used in balancing and cleaning processes, in engine and transmission manufacturing and in final vehicle assembly, among other areas; and the fourth division, Clean Technology Systems, is focused on processes to improve energy efficiency and exhaust air purification.
Dürr has 50 business locations in 23 countries worldwide and approximately 7,500 employees. The group achieved sales of €1.9 billion in 2011.