Dr. Robert Vollmer, Head of Digital Automotive Solutions at Schuler

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The answer to this question from Dr. Robert Vollmer, Head of Digital Automotive Solutions at press manufacturer Schuler, is: "Creating complete transparency through digitalization". With a view to the automotive industry, he identifies two major trends in addition to topics such as component quality, energy consumption and cost efficiency, which can only be addressed in practice with consistent digitalization: "On the one hand, manufacturers are confronted with small batch sizes; the automobile is becoming an individualized product. Today, the production line is retooled up to five times per shift, which usually means more than ten tool changes per day." It's obvious: transparency on the data side can create speed of action in production.

And secondly, car manufacturers are pushing the limits in every respect: "Technically speaking, everything is being taken to the extreme: Design, consumption, usability, comfort. All of this has to be taken into account when looking backwards along the process chain to production and to the suppliers of semi-finished products and raw materials."

So the challenges are well known. So how does a large plant manufacturer like Schuler respond? The answer is: with transparency. Schuler offers a Track&Trace solution for press shops within the 'Digital Suite'. This enables automotive manufacturers to trace their components back to master data and order level at any time - whether during the production process itself or later in the event of recalls. The aim is to draw the right conclusions, explains Dr. Vollmer: "The benefit is far fewer rejects, which in view of the turnover in large pressing plants - hundreds of millions in material - quickly achieves a major leverage effect. Schuler's aim is to provide operators and plant managers in the field with precise information so that they can recognize the important correlations on the basis of transparency, as isolated information from the ERP is not sufficient. With a view of complete supply and production chains, reaction times can be shortened in the event of errors and disruptions can be prevented from the outset in the long term. Dr. Vollmer is aware that although the 'Digital Suite' is one of these new, data-driven business models "straight out of the textbook", which gives a provider from high-wage Germany new dynamism, the path to it leads over rocky new territory: "Modern thinking is fast."