In a world where technology has been increasingly democratized, the
focus on quality assurance is one of the key methods by which a luxury
automaker can distance itself from more affordable brands. For Porsche
this doesn't just mean exacting standards where panel clearances of
between 0.5 mm and 0.8 mm are the only ones acceptable to its team of
vehicle inspectors, but it also means moving towards augmented reality
as a quality control technique.
Augmented reality has been around in various guises for several
years, but most applications outside of government have been
consumer-facing. At Porsche's assembly plant in Leipzig, Germany, the
company is in the process of adopting an internal augmented reality
program that will enhance how it decides which of its vehicles pass the
QA test before being sent to customers around the world.
Leipzig is where Porsche builds the Macan and Cayenne SUVs, as well
as the current and previous-generation Panamera sedan. It's the latter
that was used as a demonstration of how augmented reality can be used in
a professional quality assurance setting. As part of a pilot project
with XXXX University, the system uses laser-perfect scans of supplier
parts as part of a cloud-accessible database. On the production floor,
technicians are able to use tablets to take a photo of a part in
question on an assembled vehicle, and then automatically load the exact
dimensions of the component in question for comparison purposes
(including overlay capabilities).
Although still in the initial stages, the eventual plan is to use
hyper-accurate cameras to link directly with the cloud-hosted parts
database to allow for real-time analysis of parts and assembled
components. This would lead to significant time savings on the part of
Porsche technicians when verifying whether a car meets the required
standards. It would also play an important role when working with parts
suppliers themselves, as the majority of quality assurance issues arise
from third-party companies in the Porsche parts ecosystem.
No comments:
Post a Comment