Courtesy of international - Automotive IT News and … 1 international Executive Report – August 2013 Executive Report: This is the 11th edition of the automotiveIT Executive Report

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internationalExecutive Report – August 2013

Executive Report: This is the 11th edition of the automotiveIT Executive Report. It features exclusive interviews, news stories and analyses covering the top issues facing IT decision makers in the global automotive industry. Subscribers receive the Executive Report either in print or in PDF format via e-mail 12 times a year. The next issue will be published in September. Make sure you receive the automotiveIT Executive Report and place an order online at www.automotiveit.com/executive-report

Roboter erledigen in der Fertigung Jobs, die nach modernen Maßstäben unvereinbar mit gesundheitlichen Richtlinien oder arbeitspsychologisch unzumutbar sind

Frankfurt focus [P 4]Auto show takes placeagainst backdrop of weak sales in Europe· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Toyota's IT [P 8]European CIO explains how carmaker operates a different IT model· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Supply chain [P 16]Cloud-based IT systemscan do a better jobmanaging suppliers· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Daimler connects [P 18]Carmaker gets readyfor smart traffic systemon Germany's Autobahn· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Showroomers [P 20]Dealers have to adaptas connected consumersbuy cars differently· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Robots [P 22]Is automation essentialto modern manufacturingor does it mostly kill jobs?· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Distractions [P 24]Delphi's Myficonnects infotainment and active safety· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Pininfarina [P 26]Software tools helpfamous studio indesign of iconic car

Interview [P 8]:

Pierre MasaiCIO, Toyota Motor Europe

SPECIAL

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The Frankfurt auto show, arguably the world's most important car gathering, will start with two press days September 10. The show, which features displays from almost all global automakers and hundreds of their suppliers, will be attended by 1 million visitors. They come looking for new cars, innovative designs and the new technologies that should

help the global auto industry continue to grow, despite a long list of challenges.

The industry won't disappoint. Flashy new models will demon-strate the creative powers of the carmakers' top designers. A growing number of hybrid and full-electric vehicles will under-score the auto industry's readiness for a new era. And affordably priced cars in the volume segments will have connectivity options that, until recently, only buyers of expensive premium models could afford.

IT is never the focus at the world's biggest auto shows and Frank-furt will be no exception. But electric vehicles and connectivi-ty will feature strongly in every corner of the show and these new trends are key drivers of IT in the auto industry. Connected driving will be a major focus in Frankfurt, said Matthias Wissmann, who heads the German Automobile Association (VDA), which organizes the IAA. "This will turn cars into mobile communica-tions platforms and make driving even safer," he said.

This month's issue of the automotiveIT Executive Report provides compelling evidence of the growing role played by IT at every stage of the automotive value chain. On the manufacturing side, we look at how cloud-based software can help with carmakers' supplier management. We also report on the role digital tools played in the design of an important Pininfarina concept. And our author Markus Stier muses on the pros and cons of today's automated production process.

In our main interview, Toyota Motor Europe CIO Pierre Masai explains how the world's biggest automaker uses IT conserva-tively to boost efficiency. And in other stories and commentaries, the focus is on new infotainment options, the evolution of advan-ced safety technologies and the new realities of selling cars in a connected world.

Automakers are operating in a difficult environment. Car-buying interest among younger consumers is weak, Europe is in its eighth consecutive year of falling sales, Chinese growth isn't as strong as it used to be, and geopolitical and currency worries abound. There are no IT solutions to any of these problems. But Frankfurt will show that new IT technologies can and will help. And in this new automotive era many of them could actually make the difference between success and failure.

Arjen BongardEditor-in-Chief

[email protected]

From the editor:

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company is growing exponentially. Carmakers are only just begin-ning to make productive use of these data and IT service providers have ample opportunity to help.

On display

Among European volume car makers, France's Peugeot, which is struggling to reverse a prolonged slide in earnings, plans to show 32 models, with the latest version of its core 308 the highlight of the carmaker's Frankfurt presence. Citroen, its sister brand within the PSA/Peugeot-Citroen group, is expected to unveil a new version of its C4 Picasso seven-seater minivan. Competitor Renault will show a facelifted version of its Latitude model as it continues efforts to adopt a more premium image.

The German volume segment is traditionally led by the Volkswagen brand, which plans to show electric versions of the Golf and the new small up model. The e-Golf has a 115 bhp electric motor that provides it with a driving range of 190 km. The e-up can go 160 km on one charge. VW will also reveal a new performance version of the Golf, the Golf R, which is powered by a 300 bhp TSI engine.

Germany's other major volume brand, Opel, is planning to make a splash with a concept for a sports car, the Monza. And Opel will show its new flagship Insignia, which features a range of novel infotain-ment options, including improved touch functionality and expanded individualization.

Ford will unveil a concept that will be the basis for its next-generation S-Max large crossover van. The model, which won't come to the US, will have a broad range of connectivity and infotainment features including wireless internet access for passengers. The future S-Max will also have car-to-car communication technology and various new active driver-assistance and safety systems.

Every other year the Frankfurt auto show (IAA) sets a benchmark for the state of the global auto industry. The 2013 gathering, which starts with two press days September 10 and 11, is no exception.

The mood in Frankfurt is indicative of the mood of the worldwide auto industry as a whole. This year's event will once again be marked by displays of new technology that should assure even the skeptics that the industry has what it takes to continue its global growth. The world's carmakers will demonstrate that they can build state-of-the-art cars that are thriftier, produce smaller amounts of CO2 and, yet, are more fun to drive than ever before. And as younger people buy fewer cars and increasing urbanization makes driving less attractive, the automakers will unveil more hybrids, more electrically powered cars and more vehicles that cater to the changing demands of the market.

Business backdrop

The business backdrop to all this is, on the one hand, global sales growth for the auto industry, but, on the other, continued weakness in Europe. In 2013, the European market will decline for the eighth consecutive year. From a peak in 2007, European consumers will buy about 3.5 million fewer cars this year. At the same time, China is ex-pected to grow around 8 pc this year, Brazil is likely to be up 4 percent and the big US market just saw July sales come in at a seasonally

adjusted annual rate of 15.67 million units, its second highest level since 2007. Because of this divergence between global expansion and European decline, there will be two kinds of carmakers in Frankfurt this year. On one side will be the brands that have diversified geogra-phically and are able to rely on strong sales in growth markets such as China and North America. They include carmakers such as Volks-wagen Group, BMW and Daimler. On the other side are the brands that are suffering from an overdependence on Europe: France's PSA/Peugeot-Citroen and Renault and Italy's Fiat.

The IT factor

Providers of IT products and services have opportunities in all mar-kets. Electrification and car connectivity will require countless new hardware and software functions in and around the car. Infotainment will grow as the auto industry works more closely with consumer-entertainment companies to adapt mainstream devices and services for the car. Underscoring the importance of this trend, Ford CEO Alan Mulally was set to give a keynote address at the Berlin IFA consumer electronics show Sept. 6, just a few days before the start of the IAA.In addition, automakers are introducing car-sharing schemes that rely heavily on telematics and smartphone technology. And they are beginning to change their sales strategies to incorporate more of the online and virtual tools that are preferred by younger car buyers. In all these processes, the volume of data available to an automotive

Frankfurt in focusSPECIAL

Frankfurt in focus

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The Opel Monza sports car concept is designed to show that GM's German unit can build exciting, well-designed cars

Peugeot's 208 Hybrid is one of a large number of new models the French carmaker plans to unveil in Frankfurt

Infiniti says it wants to challenge categorization with the Q30, a concept for a premium compact model


Japan and Korean car brands will also showcase product innovati-on. Toyota, the world's biggest brand in volume terms, will show the Hybrid R, a concept based on the Yaris model. The car's front wheels are powered by a 300 bhp 4-cylinder 1.6 liter gasoline engine, while the rear wheels will be driven by two 60 bhp electric motors.

Honda will unveil the wagon version of its popular Civic model, the Honda Civic Tourer. The carmaker said the new model will combine dddthe practicality of a traditional wagon in the design of a more. The Civic Tourer will be built in the UK and will be launched in Europe in

early 2014. Honda touted the car's "sports-car silhouette." Said Adri-an Killham, large project leader: For me, the strength of the car is the synergy of functionality, versatility, and dynamic expression.”

Hyundai will use the Frankfurt show to launch a new incarnation of its smallest model, the i10. The Korean carmaker says it has improved manufacturing quality, driving dynamics and safety in the new model.

Kia, Hyundai's sister brand will showcase the second generation of its successful Soul crossover. The new Soul is 20mm longer and 15

mm wider than its predecessor and has a new middle console as well as an extra large touch screen that underscores the brand's premium aspirations.

As always, the Frankfurt show will feature major new vehicles presented by the world's premium carmakers. Audi will show a cabrio version of the A3, a sporty concept as well as a facelifted new A8. The flagship model will come with the matrix LED ligh-ting technology, which, with the help of cameras automatically adjusts for oncoming traffic. The new A8 arrives just a few months after competitor Mercedes unveiled its new top-of-the-line S-Class.

Competitor BMW will unveil to the general public the production ver-sion of its i3 electric city car, which will go on sale later this year. The Munich-based premium car maker will also show a near-production-ready version of the other i brand car, the i8 plugin hybrid sports car.

On display on the traditionally big Mercedes-Benz stand will be new versions of the recently launched S-Class. A highlight will be the S-500 plugin hybrid, which will feature an 80 kW electric drive that provides an all-electric range of 30 km. The model has a 3.0 liter V6 engine. Mercedes will also unveil a new compact SUV, the GLA, which will derive its technical platform from the A-Class.

Cadillac is showing a grand coupe concept, the Elmiraj, which is inspired by its famous 1967 Eldorado sedan. The Elmiraj's user inter-face combines analog and digital displays. It has an analog tachome- ter and speedometer, both of which are transparent. Directly behind

the analog gauges sits a high-resolution display that projects driver information and output from a front-mounted camera.

In the exotic sports cars segment, Lamborghini will show what it terms the "new and most extreme model" in its Gallardo lineup, the

Gallardo LP 570-4 Squadra Corse. The model is based on the Gallardo Super Trofeo race car and has a 570bhp V10 engine that lets it go from 0 to 100 kmh in 3.4 seconds. The car can reach 200 kmh in 10.4 seconds and has a maximum speed of 320 kmh.

By Arjen Bongard

BMW is showing an almost production-ready version of its i8 electric sports car. The model will go on sale next year (Photo: BMW)

Kia says its Niro concept car (left) hints at a possible future B-seg-

ment model especially designed for cities (Photo: KIA)

Toyota's Hybrid-R concept is based on its Yaris model (Photo: Toyota)

The Cadillac Elmiraj concept is inspired by the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado(Photo: Cadillac)

SPECIAL

The Mercedes GLA small SUV is based on the architecture of the A-Class (Photo: Mercedes)Lamborghini calls the Gallardo LP 570-4 Squadra Corse the "most extreme model" in its Gallardo lineup (Photo: Lamborghini)


Pierre Masai, 55, has been CIO of Toyota Motor Europe since 2010. He also heads the Japanese carmaker's telematics activities in Europe and is in charge of the company's German IT unit, Toyota Informa-tions-Systeme GmbH. Masai spoke recently with automotiveIT about Toyota's IT philosophy, the changes in the company's European orga-nization and the role IT plays in achieving worldwide goals. In addi-tion, Masai reviewed Toyota's cooperations with Infosys, Microsoft, Oracle and other IT service providers. And he explained how Toyota views the future of car connectivity. "In many cases, Toyota's IT is not like the IT at other companies," Masai said.

You head Toyota Motor Europe's IT. Please describe your regional organization. Including Germany and the UK, I am in charge of 266 IT staff in Europe. Add to that a few hundred contractors and we have some-thing like 500 IT staff working for us in the region. We also have another 200 people working directly for our national distributors.

We have separate IT teams in the smaller national markets. But they have a close working relationship with us. In big markets such as Germany and the UK, it makes sense to have a compe-tence center that takes on more responsibility within Europe. That was the logic behind making them part of the European IT orga-nization. The alternative would have been to reduce staff there.

With lots of semi-autonomous national sales organizations, are you in a position to dictate IT policy across Europe?In Europe we have 30 national sales organizations covering 56 countries. Roughly half are Toyota-owned. There, of course, we are leading IT policy making. If an independent sales organiza-tion wants to spend money on something, we cannot say they shouldn't. It's their money. But often if we offer a very good so-lution, they are among the first to adopt it. They may be less in-terested in projects such as the harmonization of our Toyota email systems. We see even more independent policy-making among our 3,000 dealers.

An interview with: Pierre Masai, CIO,Toyota Motor Europe

"Connectivity will be indispensable"Please describe Toyota's global IT strategy.Toyota very much takes a bottom-up management approach. Tel-ling the whole world what to do from Japan doesn't fit into that philosophy. But some things do need to be global. We have a glo-bal production control system. I joined Toyota in 2005 and the first years I spent consolidating the systems of our sales operations with those of our manufacturing and r&d company. We brought them together and streamlined the whole organization and then we started moving toward a pan-European organization. We did that the Toyota way, so we didn't centralize in Brussels with one data center and all the staff there. What we said was: Let's use the assets we have in Europe and try to make them part of the same team. Then we can work on common systems and solutions. For example, we integrated Toyota GB (Great Britain) into our pan-European organization last year and are now doing the same with Germany. This year we're integrating TIS (Toyota Informations-Systeme GmbH), where I have served as managing director since April 2013.

And how do you manage IT worldwide?We have a global IT strategy, but it's not being rolled out to the regions from Japan. We look at talents and skills in the regions and are building a global IT operation out of that. The regional CIOs and our global CIO, Shigeki Tomoyama, meet twice a year to create global governance. We have various committees working on global standards and developing a joint strategy in areas such as cloud computing, mobile and social networks.

What do you spend most of your time on?Two things: Making this pan-European organization work; and the coordination of Toyota's telematics activities in Europe, which also fall under my responsibilities.

What does your IT budget look like?Between 2007 and 2010 we reduced our budget by 30 per cent, which was a big effort directly linked to our IT consolidation. We achieved that by combining our European manufacturing IT with the other systems and integrating IT in the UK and Germany into our European operation. This lets us keep budgets flat while we are in a position to do more projects. We increased our capex last year. Unlike running costs, projects that are good for the company should not be capped, but evaluated on their own merits. Can you explain in more detail how you managed to bring down costs by 30 per cent over three years?There were synergies resulting from bringing separate IT opera-tions together. We also took a systematic look at waste in the sys-tem, applying some Toyota Production System (TPS) principles. We standardized the way we look at each IT project and we have been extremely selective in deciding which project to undertake. We only do the ones that bring the most benefits. We've increased producti-vity in general, with the help of some offshoring, the consolidation of some technologies and some data center consolidation.

Could you describe the state of Toyota's global IT network and give us your views on what you need to do yourself and what you outsource?We take a pragmatic approach. You can see that in the proposal to manage our Microsoft Office 365D program from the US. We have reduced the number of data centers we operate. We've mo-ved some operations from the UK to our headquarters in Brus-sels, and we've moved our Nordic operations to Brussels. But we do such things on the basis of a business case. When we have a functioning data center and it's cost-efficient to continue to run it, that's what we do. We check every time what makes the most sense and that's what we do.

And on the subject of outsourcing IT? When I used to run a smaller IT team, I couldn't imagine outsour-cing maintenance. The people who developed the systems also maintained them. But with a much bigger scope, you have to de-cide where you focus your activities. It makes sense to outsource some things. In Europe, we have just signed a contract with In-

Toyota by the numbers

Global sales (in trillion yen) 2012: 22.064 (year ending March 31, 2013) 2011: 18.584 2010: 18.994 2009: 18.950

Net income (in billion yen) 2012: 962 2011: 284 2010: 408 2009: 209

Operating income (in billion yen) 2012: 1,320 2011: 356 2010: 468 2009: 147

Vehicle sales (Toyota and Lexus): 2012: 8.871 million units 2011: 7.352 2010: 7.308 2009: 7.237

Employee totals (at fiscal year-end)2012: 333,498 2011: 325,905 2010: 317,716 2009: 320,590

Source: Toyota


fosys for the maintenance of our IT applications. If we find in the future that another solution would work better, we might change again. We opted for Infosys because they have a long history of professional project delivery with us. Additionally, it is one of two service providers we use in North America .

In Germany you are introducing Oracle applications and are do-ing away with SAP. Why is that?Historically we have had two main ERP systems in Europe. We used Oracle for the financial operations of 54 of our national com-panies. And we used SAP in Germany. It costs more to maintain two systems than one and, given the numbers, it wasn't compli-cated to decide which one to phase out. It's a big project and it doesn't just cover the financial side. We're also implementing our vehicle order management system in Germany. It's based on Ora-cle but also has some Toyota-specific features. By rolling it out in Germany, we'll have a pan-European solution that is the same in Germany as in the UK and elsewhere.

So will everything be Oracle?Toyota has many homemade systems. Some of the SAP systems in Germany have been replaced by proprietary Toyota software and others are being replaced by Oracle. Oracle Financial is already live in Germany. In April we installed a homemade sys-tem for service parts, and in January, 2004, we will roll out a new vehicle order management system. We're working with both Info-sys and Oracle to make the changes.

Who made the decision to switch in Germany?The German changes are a very good illustration of how we work in Europe. It wasn't a headquarters decision. We discussed it for a long time with the German management and also spoke about the implications for the IT team. We don't necessarily want to hire new staff. So an SAP specialist may become an Oracle specialist or a telematics engineer. The people are very important.

Lean manufacturing was invented by Toyota. Can you apply those principles to IT as well?I'm passionate about the Toyota Production System. It's like an onion, you constantly discover new layers; it's never finished. It's also something you cannot simply copy, because everybody needs to practice it for a long time before it really works. That's even an issue within Toyota. How do you apply this to IT? There's all kinds of waste in an IT department that cannot be as easily visualized as in a factory. But everything you see implemented in a factory, I can apply in IT.

What does that mean in practice?In many cases Toyota's IT is not like the IT at other companies. If people ask us to do an IT system, we ask many questions and may suggest they shouldn't have a system at all. That doesn’t make our lives easier. When somebody thinks IT may be the solution to his problem, it's not so easy to convince him otherwise. In Toyota's manufacturing system, a lot of things are done manually. We think it's very important that team leaders do all sorts of jobs manually with big walls covered with documents. It helps them completely understand what is happening in their work place. So even if we plan to introduce a new IT process, we first test it manually. Obviously if you want to build a Web site we don't tell the marketing team to first build it manually. It's very dependent on the area of operations.

Can the IT organization contribute to further efficiency improve-ments in manufacturing? Yes, but we have to move very carefully. IT has a tendency to complicate things with big data centers and big systems that increase the potential for errors. If you can keep systems simple, that's what you need to do. You have to understand where you can add value and where you can't. For example, if you need to ma-nage inventory between several factories, that's something you can't easily do manually. You need a system. An area where we do see big potential for company-wide cost reduction is virtual engi-

neering. We have many discussions with other automakers with whom we cooperate. We need systems that talk to each other.

You're responsible for telematics in the region, which is unusual for a CIO. Can you explain how that came about and how this is going?In 2008 I was in a global executive development program where I had to choose a concentration topic that went beyond IT. I picked telematics as an area that required coordination across r&d, prod-uct planning, aftersales and IT. It's now becoming quite big and can easily take up half of my time. But when I chair the telematics committee, I don't go there as a representative of the IT side. In telematics a lot of internal cooperation is required. You have to bring the right applications to the customer, hardware needs to be replaced, the connectivity needs to be defined. These things go beyond the scope of traditional IT and a lot of cooperation with r&d is required.

In Europe, Toyota generally is not seen as a leader in telematics.We tend not to come forward with statements about our leader-ship. We focus on customer needs. If you ask around in Japan, people will say Toyota is the leader. In North America, people will talk about our Entune system. In Europe, where we have a 4.5 percent market share, we cannot just roll out a Japanese soluti-on. We have had to be creative. We brought to market the first affordable solution in the B segment when, together with Har-man International, we offered a telematics product for the Yaris. We lead in the hybrid segment and new telematics products will be rolled out to support that position.

Please tell us more.Telematics is getting bigger and bigger. In 2008 there was little awareness within Toyota and there were many questions. Now there's an awareness inside all parts of the company that it's very important. We made a conscious decision not to establish a se-parate telematics department. We're working as one team with people across all departments, which I think is quite important. Sometimes I would like 100 dedicated people, but that's not the reality in today's industry. We're lean and cannot do everything. For example, if we want to bring music streaming into the car, we'll choose just one service and introduce that one. Our strategy is to give our customers useful things that are easy to use and are relevant to 20 year olds as well as other customers.

What is your view on the high distraction potential of all these new connected services?It's not a Toyota-specific issue. But if you don't have the right te-lematics solution, people will use their smartphone. If you don't have telematics at all, people also will just revert to their phones, which is even more distracting. We constantly try to think how we can put relevant things into the car. An example would be a very good entertainment package for the kids in the back seats and something really relevant in the front of the car.

As cars become more connected, the issues of data security and privacy are gaining in importance. How do you address the pri-vacy issue?It's a very important point that we take very seriously. But in a way it's already too late. For example, if you go anywhere with your mobile phone, the mobile phone company knows where you are. There are rules and, obviously, we abide by the laws. New privacy legislation set to take effect in Europe this year will pro-vide a framework, but I'm sure every European country will want to have its own implementation. That will make working in this space even more challenging.

Will connected cars be safe from digital attacks?You don't want someone to be able to remotely take over your car. So you need to make sure that connections to vital functions in the car aren't accessible by anybody. Our focus, and that of the entire automotive industry, is to prevent hacking into a vehicle’s by-wire control system. We have very strict and effective firewall technology in place for this and we're constantly testing our sys-tems at considerable cost. We'll continue those tests and improve where necessary, but we believe our electronic control systems are robust and secure. Every new technology brings new challen-ges, much like the internet has delivered good and bad things. It's definitely an area where automakers can and should collaborate. There's no reason we should all adopt a different approach to deal with this challenge.

"In many cases Toyota's IT is not like the IT at other companies"

"To deal with urban congestion, you'll need to have a convergence

of standards to make traffic management viable"


For car dealerships, it's adapt or dieFacebook and other social media are radically changing the customer's relationship with car retailers and the automotive companies. While consumers build communities and share their individual experiences, the traditional car dealers’ influence on purchasing decisions diminishes. It doesn't have to be that way. If the retail channel accepts its new role, it will have attractive opportunities for building customer loyalty and a stronger brand image.

Today, customers entering a showroom have already gathered the latest information on car models and configurations. They do not need a salesperson to provide any more insights. If, for example, a salesman provides fuel consumption data for a specific model, the customer may double check the facts on his smartphone – even while the conversation is in progress.

And there's more. The dealer has ceased to be the preferred point of contact, but automotive media also are no longer the primary source of information. They've been re-placed by "people like you and me” who are part of a car-related internet community that constantly exchanges information. The more consumers participate, the bigger their influence on a car manufacturer’s brand image.

Dealers and carmakers have one big asset in hand. They can offer a true and tangible brand experience, thereby injecting an emotional component into the purchasing decision. Volks-wagen, with its Autostadt exhibition center, and BMW, with the BMW World in Munich, are showing how to make the delivery of a new car a truly emotional experience. Car retailers can emulate this experience in their showrooms through the creative use of materials, lighting and technology.

But what may be even more crucial is to open a direct line of communication with customers in their local environment. Mini, for example, sends out marketing teams to popular urban locations. Brands and dealers need to engage in multi-media coverage before and after local events, something that can be done relatively easily.

Active participation in social media is a must. After all, the one who doesn’t talk will be talked about. In the age of social media, problems with a car or mistakes made in repair shops

are much more of a threat than in the past. Through internet communities a few dissatisfied customers can spread the news and have a big impact on the reputation of a dealer or a car brand.

At the same time, dealers can use social media to enhance customer care and build their brands.

Customers love their car brands and they will likely be supportive of their local dealer. That's even more the case if the dealer integrates the possibilities of social media into his relationship management. And ideally such an approach will come from automakers and dealers working closely together.

Rainer Mehl

Rainer Mehl is managing director of NTT DATA, Germany

Connecting the car is an important building block for dealing with growing urban traffic congestion. Will it solve these con-gestion issues.There's a limit to the number of cars any road system can handle. But connectivity will be indispensable. We do have a standards issue, though, in vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. When each city wants to have a system that's better than the next one and adopts another standard, the different suppliers cannot ad-apt to all cities in the world. You'll need to have a convergence of standards to make traffic management viable.

You don't sound very optimistic.I've been to the ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) meetings and when you go there, it's fascinating to hear all the different constituencies that have their own, different points of view. You can imagine how much time the implementation of a viable system will take. Moreover, in Europe, you cannot dictate what each country will do, which is a typical European problem. Japan, by the way, is far ahead in implementing intelligent transport so-lutions. That's an asset Toyota can use.

You've made two global announcements about cooperation pro-jects with Microsoft. Can you explain the significance of these?One is linked to Microsoft Office applications. We're now rolling out Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint and Lync under a global con-tract with Microsoft. In addition, we have moved to a dedicated version of Office 365 in North America and we're considering doing the same in Europe. We'll run the software from two data centers in North America, which we have found is the best solution for now. It's a global project, though we don't plan to roll out 365 in Japan.

And the second contract?The second contract with Microsoft is in the telematics area. We're using Microsoft Azure to run the Toyota Smart Center, which runs various telematics applications. In Europe, we'll be able to take advantage of our cloud-based smart center and use the same infrastructure when we roll out Europe-specific telematics applications. We'll deliver different services and some of them will be launched in 2015, when the European Union's eCall emer-gency warning system is set to be implemented. We're in the de-velopment phase right now and are running Azure-based pilots at the moment.

Toyota is a big user of Salesforce's Chatter software. What do you do with that?We are using Chatter globally as a tool to keep 1000s of Toyota people connected. It's one of the tools that helps (CEO Akio) To-yoda change the company. With Chatter, you can, for example, ask all Toyota staff working on something for help. You can request information from people anywhere in the world. It's extremely powerful. By creating groups of interest, you can connect staff

who don't see each other all that often in the same group. The challenge is to get more people engaged.

The Toyota Prius continues to be the benchmark for hybrid-elec-tric vehicles. How does the company's leadership in this area af-fect your IT operations?One thing is certain: When you have more hybrid and electric ve-hicles, you will need more IT. And you need even more IT once you start communicating with other stakeholders such as, for ex-ample, electric utilities. One area we focus on is the visualization that provides support to Toyota and Lexus hybrid drivers. We're always surprised how many people don't understand how a hybrid works. We like to make things visible.

Final question: Where is Toyota's IT headed in the next 10 years?My vision is to use the best talent wherever it is and constant-ly improve our operation. I really believe in developing people, using their talents and motivating them. What I particularly like about Toyota is that our regions can influence what we do globally. Some of what we do in Europe we are now starting to implement globally.

Interview by Arjen BongardPhotos by Claus Dick

"IT has a tendency to complicate things. If you can keep systems simple, that's

what you need to do."


ment), he said. “Medium-sized suppliers are still clearly lagging behind. But their large customers are aggressively giving them the responsibility for managing their own subcontractors more effectively and for showing their risk management systems to their clients." Failing to act poses serious risks to carmakers. Said Brandner: "It only takes a breakdown at a Tier 4 supplier to bring an automaker’s assembly lines to a stop.”

70 different systems

Given the complexity of today's supplier management, there is a growing need to effectively and efficiently manage an exploding volume of data. “The quantity of data seems to be growing inces-santly," said SupplyOn's Brandner. "That translates to a great deal of administration for both the supplier and the automaker." Efforts to consolidate different data sources into a single pool are a major struggle for automakers and suppliers alike, the consultant said.

NTT Data's Lindner agreed. “The IT systems for supplier evaluation are very heterogeneous and reflect processes that have grown up over a long period,” he said. “In practice, it is not unusual to have about 70 different systems or data sources under one dashboard or cockpit.” Lindner said the systems have mostly been developed by the companies themselves. But even where firms have resorted to standard software, they have been adapted so extensively that not much is left of the original version. Every automaker works with a range of major Tier 1 suppliers, exponentially adding to the variations. “The manufacturers’ view of the next supplier is well-established, but there is a lack of transparency as soon as an automaker wants to evaluate a supplier’s supplier. There is no op-portunity for direct access,” Lindner said.

That's where new IT systems can help. Especially industry-wide cloud-based solutions can capture supplier master data, certifi-cations, and information on compliance and environmental risks in a particular location. SupplyOn has adopted such an industry-wide approach to deal with sustainability issues across the supply chain. “Sustainability has many different aspects, starting out with whether labor issues are handled reasonably and ranging all the way to compliance issues, waste disposal and energy manage-ment,” A.T. Kearney's Haubensak said. “Considering all the infor-mation that each manufacturer needs, an industry-wide informa-tion standard could save a lot of effort and expense.”

Obviously, there will always be company-specific issues related to risk management and other areas. A supplier can have different on-time delivery records for different clients, for example. In that case, responses would be managed differently. Audits would be individualized and remain client-specific, SupplyOn's Brandner said. Nonetheless, centralized cloud solutions with uniform sys-tem controls and a single sign-on could also be used here.

Cloud technologies could promote simplification. For example, the IT service provider NTT Data envisions a cloud-based sup-plier platform that promotes standards and greater transparency. It would transfer the principle of social media platforms such as Facebook to the B2B relationship. It would also allow suppliers big and small to all access the sae system and would provide infor-mation on changes to everyone.

A coordinated approach

“That also applies to new legal requirements,” Brandner said, ci-ting as an example a US rule passed in 2012 that requires com-panies to disclose the use of conflict minerals, which are mined in countries with human rights violations. The rule applies to any company supplying the US. And from October, a new EU law will require proof of intra-community goods movements. If there is no proof, local value-added tax must be declared. Violations result in stiff penalties. It is a good idea to carry out these measures collec-tively rather than one-by-one

But this poses difficulties. "VW’s requirement planning is different from BMW’s. Sometimes the planning is more push, sometimes more pull. The bill of materials structures are also very different," said A.T. Kearney's Haubensak. And Lindner noted every manufac-turer has his own metrics on how to assess suppliers, what inter-vals to follow, what depth of detail to consider, and how openly to proceed, Lindner said. "Companies are far from having standards in this regard," he said. "The evaluation of suppliers of non-prod-uction materials still causes problems today."

The industry has tried in the past to come up with a coordinat-ed approach to supplier management. There is a broad consen-sus that the Covisint collaboration platform was unsuccessful in 2002 because the company had overestimated the auto industry's capacity for cooperation. The question in 2013 is whether the indus-try is now more ready to embrace such a cooperative approach to supplier management. If so, an important precondition for impro-ving supply chain management has been realized.

By Daniela Hoffmann

Cloud-based IT can help automakers deal more effec-tively with the increasingly complex world of supplier management. The issue is crucial to the success of the industry, as more than 75 pc of the value of a car comes from the contributions made by suppliers. But each car company has its own approach to managing suppliers and making sure standards are enforced all through the value chain. And it is not at all clear whether carmakers are ready to embrace a coordinated industry-wide approach.

Automotive companies agree supplier manage-ment needs to be improved in several key areas. The first order of business for an automaker is to know what's happening inside its key sup-pliers. Sustainability, equality and risks assess-ment are top priorities. “Risk management and corporate social responsibility are two factors pro-moting the desire for improved supplier evalua-tions,” said Sebastian Lindner, supply chain manage-ment consultant at NTT Data. The IT consultants recently conducted an auto industry study that shows how com-panies are expected to press ahead with cross-linkages in supplier management. “The objectives include fewer interface problems and media disruptions, more transparency and the minimization of risks to supply,” he said.

Martin Haubensak, a partner at consultants A.T. Kearney said sustainability and consistency are major drivers in the car industry's push for better supplier management. Car manuf-acturers are transferring much of the responsibility for the en-tire value chain to their tier 1 suppliers, but there is a need for consistency at every level, including tier 2, tier 3 and beyond. "Supplier management to promote sustainability must be continual – all the way back to the working conditions in the mi-nes extracting the raw materials," he said.

Automakers need to look at a wide array of factors that can impact their manufacturing, their product and, ultimately, their success in the marketplace. For example, it pays to take a close look at labor-intensive components from low-cost countries, Haubensak said. By contrast, when it comes to high-tech components, high occupational safety standards can be expected.

In the area of risk management, automakers are focused on the need to have a steady and safe supply chain and to be able to manufacture without interruption. Said Haubensak: "Automakers

always raise the question: Have we shaped our sourcing foot-print in a balanced way with regard to natural catastrophes and political risks?”

A difficult balance

It's difficult to achieve such a balance when much of the supply chain is managed by component and systems makers who them-selves rely on tier 2 suppliers who, in turn, depend on thousands of smaller companies providing one or more parts. SupplyOn, a manufacturing collaboration platform established by major German automotive suppliers Robert Bosch, Continental, Schaef-fer and ZF Friedrichshafen, is helping to forge a comprehensive and consistent approach to supplier management.

"Companies are increasingly involved with risk management across the entire supply chain and are giving more thought to subcontractors,” said Stefan Brandner, board member at Supply-On. Large suppliers continue to gradually develop their processes and systems into SRPM (Supplier Risk and Performance Manage-

Toward simpler supplier management

30 Management · Lieferantensysteme

automotiveIT 06/07 · 2013

_Klumpenrisiken. Was könnten Supplier Management und Feng Shui gemeinsam haben? Klare Strukturen! Gewuchertes sollte transparenten und einfachen Lösungen weichen.

32 Management · Lieferantensysteme


auch Haubensak. Es bleiben, zum Beispiel beim Risikomanagement, auch unternehmensabhängige Themen. Ein Lieferant kann für verschiedene Auftraggeber beispielsweise eine unterschiedliche Liefertreue haben, und damit wäre auch das Maßnahmenmanagement anders. Auch das individuelle Audit wird kundenspezifisch bleiben, meint Brandner. Trotzdem könnten hierfür ebenfalls zentrale CloudLösungen mit einheitlicher Systembedienung und SingleSignon eingesetzt werden.

Cloud-Technologien könnten zur Vereinfachung beitragen. Der ITDienstleister NTT Data sieht beispielsweise in einer Cloudbasierten Lieferantenplattform, die das Prinzip von SocialMediaPlattformen wie Facebook auf eine B2BPlattform überträgt, einen zukunftsfähigen Ansatz für Standards und mehr Transparenz. Grundsätzlich bringen gemeinsam genutzte CloudLösungen viel positives Potenzial für die Branche. „Der wichtigste Vorteil eines CloudKonzeptes besteht darin, dass alle auf die gleiche Lösung zugreifen, zudem bietet sich eine bessere Möglichkeit, die kleineren Lieferanten anzubinden, die bisher noch nicht gut integriert sind“, erklärt Brandner. Alle Änderungen stünden für alle Beteiligten zugleich zur Verfügung, es müsse nicht jeder einzelne seine Systeme anpassen. „Das gilt auch für neue gesetzliche Vorgaben“, sagt Stefan Brandner und nennt Beispiele: Ein neues USGesetz von 2012 sieht vor, dass Konfliktmineralien, die in Ländern mit Menschenrechtsverletzungen abgebaut werden, ausgewiesen werden müssen. Jedes Unternehmen, das in die USA liefert, muss sich daran halten. Auch ein neues EUGesetz bringt ab Oktober 2013 Änderungsvorgaben: Ab dann ist ein Nachweis innergemeinschaftlicher Warenbewegungen (Gelangensbestätigung) nötig: Fehlt der Nachweis, muss zwingend die deutsche Umsatzsteuer ausgewiesen werden, Verstöße haben empfindliche Strafen zur Folge. Es macht Sinn, solche Aspekte gemeinsam statt alleine umzusetzen.Doch der Schuh drückt. „Es gibt erhebliche Einsparungspotenziale. Dafür müsste jedoch ein Umdenken stattfinden, hin zu mehr gelebten Partnerschaften bei den OEMs“, meint Sebastian

Lindner. Doch selbst die Experten sind noch skeptisch, ob es dafür reichen wird. „Die Unternehmen haben eine bestimmte Arbeitsweise, von der sie glauben, dass sie dadurch erfolgreich sind. Daher ist ein Standardsystem zur Abdeckung individuell unterschiedlicher Erfolgsfaktoren unwahrscheinlich“, vermutet Haubensak. „Die Bedarfsplanung bei VW ist anders als bei BMW. Mal gibt es mehr Push, mal mehr PullKonzepte, auch die Stücklistenstrukturen sind sehr unterschiedlich“, meint der Zuliefermanagementexperte. Eine entscheidende Hürde liege auch darin, dass jeder Hersteller eine eigene Metrik habe, wie und mit welcher Regelmäßigkeit, in welcher Detailtiefe und mit welcher Offenheit Supplier gemessen werden, meint Sebastian Linder: „Hier ist man von Standards noch weit entfernt. Besonders die Bewertung von Lieferanten für NichtProduktionsmaterial bereitet den Unternehmen derzeit noch Probleme.“ Zudem dürfte der Abschied vom Vertrauten – wie immer – schwer fallen. „Das Problem liegt darin, dass es bereits etablierte Netzwerke und Kooperationen gibt, mit Prozesssynchronisation zwischen jeweils zwei Unternehmen. Wenn stärker nach weiteren Leistungsfaktoren neben Preis und Qualität geschaut würde, könnten etablierte Netzwerke, in denen viel Knowhow steckt, ausgeweitet werden“, bestätigt Lindner. Auch das Cloud Computing selbst stößt noch immer auf Gegenwind. „Es ist eher ein mentales und unternehmenskulturelles Problem. Technisch sind CloudLösungen realisierbar“, erklärt der SCMConsultant Lindner. 2002 schrieb Daniel Garretson von Forrester Research anlässlich des Misserfolgs der SupplierPlattform Covisint: „Es gibt deutlich weniger Fähigkeit zum Kooperieren für die Automobilindustrie, als jeder gedacht hätte. Es gibt eine Menge tief verwurzelten Misstrauens, so dass es sehr schwierig ist, die einzelnen Ebenen in einem kollaborativen Prozess zusammenzubringen“. Und 2013? Die Vision, standardisiert Lieferanten zu bewerten und ein lernendes Konstrukt zu schaffen, ist technisch kein Problem mehr. Alles wartet auf die Branche.

Autorin: Daniela Hoffmann

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(Photos: VW, Audi,Fotolia/Sergey Nivens)


In early June, German Transportation Minister Peter Ramsauer and his Dutch and Austrian counterparts agreed in principle to establish a smart traffic system on Germany’s Autobahn. Only a few days later, Daimler announced it would be the first car manufacturer to bring car-to-x technology to series-production Mercedes models by year-end.

At a European transport ministers meeting in Luxembourg in mid-June, Ramsauer teamed up with Austria's Doris Bures and Melanie Schultz of the Netherlands to back the transnational introduction of so-called "cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS)." Starting in 2015, the systems will notify drivers about construc-tion sites and other situations more quickly and more precisely. Depending on availability, the communication between vehicles and the infrastructure will take place via the wifi 802.11 standard or by way of mobile phone technology. The introduction in Germany is taking place in three stages: The technical system is initially being developed and tested in the state of Hesse. The next step is equipping the Rotterdam, Frankfurt and Vienna corridor. Later, the Autobahn network is scheduled to get the new technology Germany-wide. “The transportation of goods and people is expected to grow tremendously in coming years,” Ramsau-er said. “To handle the traffic smoothly and accident-free, we have to get more out of the existing infrastructure.”

Automakers are essential players in efforts to cope with the rapidly expanding flow of traffic. Advanced telematics solutions are seen as key in the process. Daimler's car-to-X system uses a special accesso-ry called the Drive Kit Plus for the iPhone, which will work in com-bination with the Mercedes-Benz Digital DriveStyle app. Drive Kit Plus, which is known from the Mercedes A- and B-Class, turns the cars into senders and receivers of information. The system has so far been positioned purely as an infotainment component. But now the safety aspect has been added. Because the car-to-X system docks directly with the on-board electronics, Mercedes cars can identify many hazards automatically.

Efficient manual reporting options have been created for still other situations. For example, you can report broken-down vehicles or animals lying in the road with a push of a button. The same is true for wrong-way drivers or lost cargo. Highly secure servers in the vehicle’s backend relay warnings in fractions of a second to all the vehicles equipped with car-to-X technology in the vicinity of the ha-zard. “Through the intelligent fusion of a variety of sensor data, we even receive a very precise image of the vehicle environment further afield,” said Daimler development chief Thomas Weber. ”That helps us with the further development of autonomous driving functions in the vehicle.”

Daimler has brought car-to-X communication to market readiness as a basic technology. The auto industry has been occupied with the exchange of information and data between vehicles for almost two decades. There has been plenty of basic development work, but no manufacturer has yet taken a solution into series production. Over the last two years, Mercedes-Benz has followed through digitally and developed a suitable app.

The approach has its appeal: The company is creating the conditions for the maximum number of Mercedes-Benz customers to benefit from car-to-car technology. The Drive Kit Plus can be ordered on new vehicles or installed as an upgrade on vehicles in stock. At the same time, in a hybrid approach, Daimler can expand its system to-ward a so-called ad hoc communication between vehicles and thus exchange and share data with other automakers. “As the benefit of car-to-x systems grows with every additional participant, we are striving for the exchange of data with other automakers,” said Jo-chen Hermann, who is in charge of driver assistance systems and active safety at Mercedes-Benz Cars.

By Ralf Bretting

Daimler ready for IT on the Autobahn

Real-time: Daimler takes off the gloves

Daimler's car-to-x system is making non-current traffic informa-tion a thing of the past. The exchange of information between vehicles equipped with the technology and backend systems takes only fractions of a second, earning the rating of “real- time.” automotiveIT recently tested the technology on rural roads around the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center in Sindelfingen near Stuttgart. Each warning that popped up proactively on the display translated one-to-one to a real-life situation. Traffic back-ups, broken-down vehicles, police cars at the scene – the driver was always up-to-date on what awaited us around the next cur-ve. The two-phase display concept and the operation of the app were deliberately kept simple and straightforward so the driver is not distracted. “It is not Mercedes’ style to bring a safety system to market that makes driving less safe,” said development engineer Miro Bogdanovic, describing the engineering philosophy. Custo-mers who already use Drive Kit Plus and the Digital Drive Style App are receiving the new safety features automatically with the next update. The map material from Garmin is free of charge. And an Android version is in the works as well.

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Germany's Ramsauer, Schultz of the Netherlands (l) and Austria's Bures agreed on a smart transportation scheme

Mercedes cars can identify many hazards automatically. (Source Daimler)

Mercedes cars can identify many hazards automatically. (Photo: Daimler)

http://www.automotiveIT.com/executive-report


Mobile technology will move cars beyond science fictionEvery few years a gadget comes along that takes Silicon Valley by storm, before going on to conquer the world. A few years ago it was the tablet. Before that it was the smartphone. Well we’re all in love again, but this time it’s a car: the new Tesla Model S which is rolling out across Eu-rope later this year and into next. This is no ordinary auto-mobile. Slip behind the wheel and rather than analog dials and gauges, a high-resolution digital display puts speed, range, audio controls, trip information, and more in front of the driver in clear, crisp color. And instead of a center stack cluttered with plastic nobs and switches, the Tesla has a 17-inch touch screen for everything from directions, courtesy of Google, to the controls you need to adjust the sunroof.

The Tesla Model S is only one example of what’s already on the road, as automakers pour technology from the world's smartphones and tablets into automobiles. But while the digital devices are radically changing consumers’ expectations, automakers don’t have to remake their cars at the same fre-netic pace we’re seeing in smartphones and tablets. Instead, car companies are taking advantage of innovations such as Nvidia's Visual Computing Module (VCM). By separating the systems that don't change that frequently (ie CAN bus or Wifi) from those that do (ie mobile application processor and memory density) a modular design enabled by VCM will speed innovation to market faster, without having to build an entire system from scratch each model year. In addition, by designing in a powerful processor, the life of that system will be dramati-cally improved, as software upgrades will continue to keep the system fresh.

And there’s much more coming. Nvidia's new Jetson develop-ment platform aims to give automakers access to the technolo-gies that will appear in the next-generation of mobile devices. Jetson combines today's Tegra mobile application processor with a discrete high performance GPU. That means developers can use the platform to begin development today, emulating the performance and capabilities of future Tegra processors. And that promises to unlock a new generation of visual compu-ting technologies, such as pedestrian detection, lane departure warning and collision avoidance. Combine these technologies and you're looking at autonomous driving ...

The challenge has always been to bring the cost and complexi-ty of these systems down far enough to put them within reach of everyday drivers. The growing sophistication of today’s mass market mobile technologies will provide the tools to meet this challenge, and will do so sooner than many expect. Nvidia has smartphone and tablet customers as well as automotive custo-mers. That enables innovation on both market fronts simulta-neously. And costs to automotive customers can be lowered by leveraging the vast economies of scale present in the mobile space, due to the hundreds of millions of units produced.

Greater processing power and richer graphics will help provide new in-vehicle experiences that will go beyond what we’ve seen in science-fiction. Rather than poking at awkward, indus-trial era controls, cars will one day be able to read and respond to our intentions. The cars we’re now seeing in science fiction thrillers at the cinema will seem quaint.

Danny Shapiro

Danny Shapiro is director ofautomotive at Nvidia

A specter is roaming through German retail stores: It's known as "the showroomer." He goes into retail outlets – including car dealerships – doesn’t say hello, looks furtively at a small display in his coat pocket, handles products, climbs into cars, tries them out – and then disappears to buy the goods more cheaply some-where else. German retailers have already identified these show-roomers as a new scourge from an internet that has gone mobile. They now see a gloomy future in which notoriously stingy buyers enjoy an unlimited overview of prices.

The mobile internet has become important to consumer goods retailers – and even extremely important to dealerships. To see how crucial the mobile channel is becoming to customers, it’s best to look at media data from major online players. For example, the used car exchange AutoScout24 says 25 percent of the retrievals of its detail pages already take place on mobile devices. The Auto-Scout 24 app has been downloaded 3.4 million times. The company is also marketing banner ads for mobile devices prominently – the solution to a revenue problem that even online giant Facebook had to address. Its mobile app is currently the most downloaded.

Owners of mobile devices are particularly valuable customers, according to a study commissioned by AutoScout in late 2012. An individual with a smartphone and tablet plans to spend about 34,000 euros on his next car. Someone only using a tablet intends to spend 31,700 euros on it. The figure for those exclusively using a smartphone is just 25,200 euros. And anyone with neither a smart-phone nor a tablet intends to spend just 19,000 euros.

What should a retailer do? One thing is clear: It will be more and more important to integrate devices into communication and sales. "Multi-channel is no longer the issue. It is now multi-digital,” said Katja Rick, associate director at TNS Infratest, a market re-search company. “Today, if companies want to make sure they are reaching their target groups reliably, there is no longer a way around a mobile approach," she said. "That's because the younger generation in particular is basically always on."

The “Mobile Life 2013” study by TNS Infratest examined the use of mobile devices before, during and after shopping. In Germany, it actually identified 68 percent of smartphone users as so-called showroomers who test and inspect a product before or during a store visit and then go somewhere else to purchase it. A total of 27.1 percent use their smartphone during their showroom vi-sits, and that figure is even somewhat higher for customers at car dealerships. The results seem to confirm retailers’ fears. But they also succinctly show the needs of customers.

“Customers always want to see or handle a product before the purchase,” Walter Freese, head of the mobile division at TNS In-fratest, said in a press release. “Showrooming reduces many retail businesses to money-losing storefronts." Freese said auto brands and their dealers shouldn't see the trend as merely a danger. "They should accept it as an opportunity to form bonds with their custo-mers in a direct, personal way and make sure that they do not leave the store empty-handed,” he said.

If dealers play the mobile card themselves, there are three basic services their mobile apps must provide, according to Infratest:1. Help the buyer save time and minimize hassles2. Provide an opportunity to save money on things considered

important3. Give the buyer the feeling that he has made the right purchase

decision.

By Georg Winter

Changes in the showroom

Dealers are using more digital tools to sell cars. At the same time, mobile consumers are adopting new methods to compare prices

and find the best deal (Photo: Sabina Vogel)


Once seen as the greatest innovation in industrial manufacturing, robots today are just as often perceived as contributors to grow-ing joblessness. "The list of activities where people are better than machines is rapidly getting shorter," Andrew McAfee, a resear-cher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Germany's Spiegel magazine recently. In 2011, McAfee and his MIT colleague Erik Brynjolfsson wrote a book titled "Race against the machi-ne; How the digital revolution is accelerating innovation, driving productivity, and irreversibly transforming employment and the economy." The two academics argued that the increasing use of software- and hardware-based robots in all walks of life is at least a contributing factor to a growing trend of economies picking up without a corresponding increase in jobs.

The discussion is, to some extent, a déjà vu for the global auto indus-try. Car plants were the first to systematically replace workers with machines, already a controversial move at the time. Industrial robots were invented in 1954 by the American George Devol and went into series production at his company, Unimation, in 1956. Five years later General Motors started using them to make injection moldings. The first welding robots came to market in 1959 and in 1967 Japanese companies embarked on a big new wave of indus-trial automation. In Germany, the first robots went into operation at Mercedes-Benz in 1970.

Today, industrial robots are the dominant feature in car plants and automotive and other manufacturing companies are filling robot makers' order books. Germany's Kuka, which is one of the three biggest producers of industrial robots worldwide, announced earlier this year that it would deliver 2,400 new machines to pre-mium car maker BMW. A few weeks earlier, it signed an agreement with Volkswagen to deliver 6,000 robots. On an even bigger scale, Chinese electronics manufacturer Foxconn is in the process of instal-ling 1 million new robots at its plants.

A look at the robotics industry's growth rates shows how important robots have become in manufacturing. Around 2000 the global in-dustry sold about 80,000 industrial robots a year. Ten years later that number had doubled. US companies alone bought 22,598 robots last year, up from 19,337 in 2011, according to the country's Robotic Industries Assocation. About 225,000 robots are in use in the US.

Where does this boom come from? Moore's Law plays a big part. Intel's co-founder, Gordon Moore, postulated in 1965 that the number of transistors on integrated circuits would double roughly every two years and so far he has been proven correct. The ability to carry out ever more complex calculations in ever shorter timeframes hasn't just boosted the capacity of PCs. It has benefited robots even more. In the early days of robots, the machines were relatively un-predictable and prone to breakdowns. They also were awkward to

60 Faszination IT · Roboter


DerverfluchteSegenRoboter sind des Menschen Helfer und Diener, ein bisschen ungelenk, ein bisschen dumm, aber immer willig und eifrig. Doch mittlerweile schlagen uns Computer im Schach, sind Roboter so geschickt und präzise, dass sich der Mensch ängstlich zu fragen beginnt, wozu er noch gebraucht wird.

integrate in the production process and they had trouble acquiring the proper skills. That meant their usefulness was limited, which preserved jobs. Robots also weren't particularly reliable. In the 1990s, the driver's seat of an Opel Vectra came loose during a crash test initiated by Germany's TUEV testing organization and the Auto, Motor und Sport magazine. The cause: the robot responsible for securing the seats had properly tightened the bolts, but had failed to notice that they had been improperly screwed in.

A lot has happened since this incident and robots have come of age. Most are equipped with sensors that can adjust flexibly to measure-ments received constantly. Many are no longer fixed to a particular spot, but can actually move around. And a robot's movements and actions are precisely dictated by a programmer. Today's robots use sensors and cameras to autonomously recognize parts. They can pick them up, position them properly and recognize by the size of a screw where it needs to go and how tightly it must be fastened. In storage facilities, transport robots find their own way, avoid obsta-cles and make emergency stops when necessary. Robots have long been dangerous for their human co-workers because of the ma-chines' unpredictable and sudden movemements and their power. But the latest generation can move aside or slow down, opening up the prospect that man and machine can become actual colleagues.

The benefits provided by the era of robots are many. Machines go into nuclear facilities where radiation is too high for humans. They

disable landmines, or they look for leaks in sewer pipes. In manufac-turing, they take care of jobs that are a risk to human workers' health or their sanity. No job is ever too stupid or boring for a robot. The robot never gets tired and the only break it gets is the one needed for maintenance. Robots have also gotten cheaper. According to a study by consultants McKinsey the cost of of a robot has dropped by 50 pc in the past two decades. A robot built by Rethink Robotics of the US is ready to get to work in an hour and costs a mere 22,000 dollars. That new affordability has caused a rethink at Boston Consulting. Whereas the management consultants advised US companies to move production to Asia as recently as 10 years ago, today they are recommending them to come back home. Apple, which puts together most of its products in China and elsewhere in Asia, is considering such a move. Google is also contemplating production of its new digital glasses in the US. And the American furniture industry, which has long since moved the bulk of its production abroad, may also reconsider.

Manufacturing jobs in industrialized nations continue to disappear and continued efficiency improvements across plants undoubtedly have something to do with this. But automation proponents argue that the increased use of robots creates more jobs than it destroys. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) published a report earlier this year that predicted robots will help create more than 2 million jobs in the next eight years. "Our study proves that robots create jobs," said IFR General Secretary Gudrun Litzenberger. "Productivity and competitiveness are indispensable for a manufac-turing enterprise to be successful on the global market."

Optimists and doomsayers are miles apart, when it comes to the effects of all this automation. In a not too distant future will we lounge around the pool while a robot serves us drinks, or will we all be standing in endless unemployment lines? Is the current boom in robotics merely a harbinger of further labor-market change or does it mean the end of work? Nobody knows for sure, but clearly the de-velopment cannot be halted.

By Markus Stier Photos: Audi, BMW/Mutabor









Der Roboter, doch eigentlich seit jeher als braver Helfer des Menschen gedacht, wird nun zu dessen Bedrohung, und das ganz ohne schwere Maschinengewehre, wie wir sie aus Endzeitfilmen kennen

Robots: a blessing or a curse?


WUPPERTAL, Germany -- It's not for lack of trying, but, so far, no car company has found a solution to the growing problem of driver distraction. Interfaces have been improved, the latest generation of touch screens functions more smoothly, voice recognition is get-ting better by the day and even gesture control is set to become an HMI option. But the central problem remains: infotainment draws a driver's attention away from his number one priority, safely driving the car.

In January, Delphi unveiled one of the most ambitious research vehi-cles to address the issue of driver distraction. At the Las Vegas CES, Delphi used a modified Ford Explorer to demonstrate how infotain-ment functions can be connected to active driver assistance systems that won't hesitate to intervene in the driving of the car whenever necessary. The US-based automotive supplier then took its "Myfi" vehicle on the road, showing it to most if not all of the world's major carmakers. The response, Delphi says, was positive and some of the Myfi features are likely to show up in new car models in co-ming years.

Delphi believes you cannot eliminate the driver distraction factor, but you can address it and mitigate its impact. "There's no solution," said Pietro Ottavis, who heads Delphi's global infotainment busi-ness. "You cannot forbid drivers to do things and even if a driver just talks hands-free it's a distraction because his mind is not on driving."

Ottavis, like other senior auto-industry executives, accepts dri-ver distraction as a fact of life – at least until autonomous driving becomes a reality. But he and other Delphi specialists say there are ways to make it less dangerous. Delphi believes it is moving in the right direction with a system that takes a more active approach than most technologies currently in use. "Our job is to detect a distraction and then create an alarm function that alerts the driver or even disa-bles certain systems," Ottavis said.

That's exactly what Delphi's Myfi does. In a demonstration at the company's German headquarters here technicians showed how the car of tomorrow can deal with a distracted driver. Using a variety of radar sensors and cameras, the Myfi system acts when it determines that it has to. For example, when the technology detects that, in a particular situation, the driver is taking his eyes off the road too long, it gives a warning to look ahead.

If a driver continues to keep his eyes on the in-car monitor despite the first warning, Myfi goes one step further: the screen will go blank. And if that doesn't help, an acoustical warning so loud it cannot be ignored prompts the driver to finally take action.

Driver distraction has become a major issue for the auto indus-try, mostly because the use of smartphones and the rise of new infotainment features has given drivers the option to engage in a

growing range of non-driving-related activities. "We see a trend that the number of accidents, which were dropping, are now rising again because drivers are more distracted because of their phones," said Rudolf Hemmert, European product manager for Delphi's infotain-ment and safety electronics. Hemmert said Delphi's approach is new because, until now, classic safety and infotainment hasn't been con-nected in this way.

How does Delphi's Myfi work? The system uses a so-called driver state sensor that can detect whether the person behind the wheel is facing forward. Sensors and cameras also monitor whether a driver closes his eyes and special algorithms can determine how distracted or how tired he is. Delphi says some of these technologies will be in model-year 2016 vehicles.

A Myfi-equipped car also gets the usual array of data about the driving environment. This allows a workload manager to determine whether one particular situation requires more active safety inter-vention than another. For example, the system may allow incoming phone calls and text messages via a text-to-speech interface on an empty highway. It may also allow speech-based social networking. But on a busy urban road with many intersections, the same system may defer incoming phone calls and text messages for later retrieval and may suspend social networking altogether.

Combining all these data with a car's active-safety technology pro-vides what Delphi calls "connected safety." Said Ottavis: "Myfi gives drivers the possibility to use a whole range of highly innovative in-fotainment features in a safe environment."

By Arjen Bongard

Delphi tackles driver-distraction dilemma

Delphi's aim is to combine new infotainment options with

active safety systems

Since January, Delphi has shown its Myfi vehicle to most major carmakers (Photos: Delphi)

News in brief +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Inrix in Brazilian expansionInrix will integrate data from Brazil's MapLink into its local offering, as the US-based traffic information specialist expands its business in South America's biggest market. Under a new ag-reement between the two companies, MapLink's local route infor-mation will be included in the traffic intelligence platform of Inrix, providing customers with improved real-time and predictive traffic services. Inrix, which gets real-time traffic data from about 100 mil-lion vehicles and devices worldwide, offers analytical tools and services in 35 countries. Brazil is a key market for traffic services, Inrix said, because of its growing congestion issues. “Traffic congestion is one of Brazil’s biggest problems because the country’s infrastructure has not kept pace with its rapid economic growth,” said INRIX Senior Vice President of Business Development Kush Parikh. Gridlock is becoming a threat to Brazil's economic growth, he said in a press release. MapLink founder and sales director Frederico Hohagen added that the combined traffic services products will help industry and government address urban traffic congestion in particular. Said Hohagen: “Sao Paulo, Rio and other major cities throughout Brazil have some of the worst traffic congestion in the world.” Traffic worries are taking on new urgency as Brazil hosts the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. Both events bring huge numbers of visitors to the host country, thereby severely taxing transportation infrastructures.


The September issue of the automotiveIT Executive Report features indepth coverage of the Frankfurt auto show (IAA). The world's biggest automotive gathering is held against a backdrop of declining sales in Europe but plenty of growth opportunities in other markets. IT is playing an ever bigger role in the cars that are heading into showrooms today.

Major automakers are unveiling some of their most important new models in Frankfurt and automotiveIT will talk to key decision makers. The focus will, as always, be on the new hardware and software technologies that are an integral part of today's automoti-ve business. Connected cars and electric vehicles will take a more prominent position in the Frankfurt lineup, which provides opportunities for a whole new array of automotive partners.

Also in the September issue: an interview with Ulrich Kranz, who heads a crucial BMW project: the launch of its new i brand. The Munich-based carmaker is showing the production version of the i3 city vehicle in Frankfurt and it will unveil an almost-final version of the i8 sports car. In the interview, conducted before the IAA, Kranz talks about the targets BMW has set itself with the new brand, the challenges and opportunities in urban mobility and the connectivity options already available today.

Finally, the Executive Report takes a look at the IFA consumer elec-tronics show in Berlin, where Ford CEO Alan Mulally was set to deliver a keynote address in early September. Mulally's planned attendance in Berlin underlines the growing interlinkage between consumer electronics and the auto industry.

In the next automotiveIT Executive Report:

Coverage of the Frankfurt auto show; Reports from the IFA consumer electronics fair; An interview with BMW i's Ulrich Kranz

32 Mission · Interview

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»Wir verdienen mit jedem BMW Geld«Ulrich Kranz, Leiter Modellreihe BMW i, über den anvisierten Erfolg des i3, die Zielgruppe, die Bedeutung der Vernetzung von Mobilitätsdienstleistungen und BMW i Ventures.

_Herr Kranz, das BMW-i-Konzept ist nicht ohne Risiko. Die Investitionen sind hoch, die Serienfertigung ist sehr speziell und in Deutschland beispielsweise ist die Euphorie über die Elektromobilität verflogen. Was macht Sie so sicher, dass das Projekt ein Erfolg wird?Der BMW i3 ist ein rein elektrisch betriebenes Fahrzeug, maßgeschneidert für die Megacitys und großen Bal-lungsräume. Er ist „born electric“, kein Umbau eines bestehenden Fahrzeuges, und hat eine klare Positionie-rung. Die Rückmeldungen der Kunden im Rahmen der Pilotierungen Mini E und ActiveE waren sehr positiv und sind in die Entwicklung des BMW i3 eingeflossen. Darüber hinaus bieten die Gene eines Elektromotors mit sei-nen 100 Prozent Drehmoment ab Start optimale Voraussetzungen für die BMW-bekannte, typische Fahrfreude – mehr noch, mit unserem BMW-i-exclusiven One-Pedal-Feeling bieten wir eine ganz andere, hochdynamische Fahrfreude.

Read more stories and other exclusive news features in theSeptember issue of the automotiveIT Executive Report

Ulrich Kranz

Photo: IFA

36 Entwicklung · Pininfarina


_Manufaktur. Pininfarina stellte den puristischen Zweisitzer Sergio mit Hilfe digitaler Tools innerhalb von sechs Monaten auf die Räder. Ein exklusiver Blick hinter die Kulissen der bekannten italienischen Designschmiede.

Bereits bei Betreten der legendären Designschmiede Pinin-farina in Cambiano bei Turin durchfährt den Besucher ein

leichter Schauer. Vielleicht liegt dies in der Tatsache begründet, dass die Klimaanlage bei sommerlichen Außentemperaturen auf Hochtouren arbeitet, ebenso wahrscheinlich ist allerdings die Theorie, dass die Coolness der ausgestellten Fahrzeuge den Besucher doch nachhaltig beeindruckt. Direkt im Foyer stehen nämlich bereits zwei Fahrzeuge mit Begeisterungsfaktor: Der elektrisch angetriebene Cambiano aus dem Jahr 2012 fängt den Blick mit seiner zeitlosen Karosserieform und einer extra-vaganten Holztäfelung im Innenraum ein. Beim Ferrari SP 12 EC wiederum handelt es sich um ein Design-Mockup eines Ein-zelstücks, das eigens für Eric Clapton entworfen wurde. Doch das eigentliche Designerstück parkt im Keller. Hier präsentiert Pininfarina das Modell Sergio, das der Öffentlichkeit bereits auf dem Auto-Salon in Genf vorgestellt worden war. Der offene Sportwagen beruht auf der technischen Grundlage des Ferrari 458 Spider, als Inspiration diente den Designern allerdings der Dino Berlinetta Speciale, das erste von dem verstorbenen Fir-menchef Sergio Pininfarina im Jahr 1965 gezeichnete Auto. Mit den Worten „Es ist pur, es ist simpel, es ist Pininfarina“ umreißt Designchef Fabio Filippini das Konzept des Fahrzeugs nahezu perfekt, das ganz nach dem Leitsatz Sergio Pininfarinas eine Brücke zwischen Designerbe und Zukunft schlagen soll. Und das ist auch gelungen – der Sergio wirkt futuristisch, ohne seine Wurzeln zu leugnen. Eine Studie, gespickt mit gestalterischen Feinheiten. Ein besonderes Detail sticht sofort hervor, obwohl es gar nicht vorhanden ist: Dem puristischen Zweisitzer fehlt die Windschutzscheibe; die ausgeklügelte Luftführung leitet den Fahrtwind durch eine Hutze auf der Motorhaube über den Kopf des Fahrers hinweg. Das spannend gezeichnete Concept Car hat heute schon das Zeug zu einer Design-Ikone.

Spannend ist auch die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Ser-gio: Zwischen dem ersten „Federstrich“ und der Präsentation

vergingen gerade mal sechs Monate, ein immens kurzer Zeit-raum, den die Designer dennoch intensiv nutzten. Möglich machten es digitale Tools – an sich nicht neu, aber in Anbe-tracht der zur Verfügung stehenden Zeit bemerkenswert. Zwar würde man den letzten Feinschliff immer am physikalischen Modell vornehmen, erklärt Fabio Filippini, digitale Werkzeuge seien allerdings aus dem Designprozess nicht mehr wegzuden-ken. Erst durch Nutzung entsprechender Software sei es Pinin-farina möglich gewesen, eine Vielzahl an Design-Ideen parallel zum Leben zu erwecken und sich so auf das bestmögliche Mo-dell zu einigen, führt der Designchef weiter aus. Zwischen der ersten Skizze und dem fertigen Prototypen standen hierbei vier Projektphasen: Nachdem eine Auswahl manueller Skizzen ge-sammelt worden war, stand mit Hilfe eines Multitouch-Moni-tors und eines entsprechenden Stylus im zweiten Arbeitsschritt die Umwandlung in ein 3D-Modell im Fokus der Designer. Um Proportionen, Gewicht und Kapazität des virtuellen Fahr-zeugs zu definieren, setzten die Entwickler auf Anbieter Das-sault (Catia). Mit dem Tool ICEM Surf wurde anschließend die „Refinement“-Phase der Entwicklung abgeschlossen, inner-halb derer Details an der Modelloberfläche gestaltet und tech-nische Bedingungen in den Prozess aufgenommen werden. In der abschließenden Runde des digitalen Durchlaufs setzten die Ingenieure und Gestalter das finale Design mit Hilfe einer Live-Rendering-Funktion in den Kontext einer simulierten Um-gebung ein. Statt allerdings auf lokale Dateisysteme zu setzen, konnten die Verantwortlichen mit Hilfe einer zentralen Ser-verarchitektur in Echtzeit an demselben Modell arbeiten und über integrierte Lösungen miteinander kommunizieren – ein wichtiger Faktor, wenn die Zeit begrenzt ist. Fabio Filippini ist sich derweil sicher: Sergio Pininfarina hätte den Kurs unter-stützt, auf digitale Designtools zu setzen, dabei aber nicht den physikalischen Eindruck zu vernachlässigen.

Autor: Werner Beutnagel Foto

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Where software tools meet design genius

(Photos: Pininfarina)

A slight shiver passes through a visitor as he enters the legendary Pininfarina design studio in Cambiano, near Turin. It may just be the airconditioning, which is running at full blast to cope with the summer heat outside. But it could just as likely be the coolness of the vehicles on display, which make a lasting impression. Right in the lobby, the visitor already finds two vehicles with a high thrill quotient. The electrically powered Cambiano from 2012 catches his eye with its timeless contours and the extravagant wood paneling in its interior. In turn, the Ferrari SP 12 EC is the mockup of a one-off designed specifically for guitar legend Eric Clapton.

But the actual masterpiece of design is parked in the basement. Here Pininfarina is showcasing its Sergio model, the concept vehicle it presented to the public at the Geneva auto show last March. The convertible sports car was named after Sergio Pininfarina, who led the famed design studio for 40 years. Pininfarina died in July, 2012, at age 85. The Sergio concept has the Ferrari 458 Spider as its tech-nical foundation. But its inspiration is the Dino Berlinetta Speciale, designed by Sergio Pininfarina in 1965 before he became company chairman.

With the words "It is pure, it is simple, it is Pininfarina," design chief Fabio Filippini outlined the vehicle's concept nearly perfectly. It is supposed to strike a course between the Pininfarina design heri-tage and the future, in accordance with Sergio Pininfarina’s guiding principle of balance and simplicity in design. And it succeeds – the Sergio seems futuristic without denying its roots. A concept car replete with design refinements. One feature is remarkable by its absence. This pure two-seater has no windshield. Part of an inge-nious air flow system, a cowl on the hood sends the wind over the head of the driver. The exciting configuration is positioning the car to become a design icon.

While the focus has been on the Sergio's looks, the design and engineering process is a story in itself. It demonstrates how new

technologies are giving car designers the tools to innovate more consistently and faster than ever before. In the case of the Sergio, a mere six months passed between the first stroke of the pen and the prototype’s presentation. That's a tremendously short timeframe, and the designers used it intensively. Digital tools made it all possi-ble. There was nothing inherently new about this, but the work was noteworthy in view of the tight schedule.

While the finishing work will always take place on a physical model, digital tools play a crucial role in the design process, Filip-pini explained. Only the use of the right software gave Pininfarina designers the option to bring a wide variety of parallel ideas to life and to agree on the best possible model, he said. There were four project phases between the first sketch and complete proto-type. First, manual sketches were collected. Then the designers transformed these drawings into a 3d model with the help of a multi-touch monitor and a stylus. The developers turned to Dassault Sys-temes' Catia software as they defined the proportions, weight and capacity of the virtual vehicle.

Next, the ICEM Surf tool was used to complete the “refinement” phase of the process. At this stage, the developers incorporated details of the model's surface and entered technical requirements into the process. In the closing round of the digital cycle, engineers and designers established the final design with the help of a live rendering function in the simulated environment.

Instead of relying on local file systems, team members were able to work on the same model in real time and communicate with one another over integrated systems – no small factor when time is short. In the meantime, Filippini is sure that Sergio Pininfarina would have supported the shift to digital design tools, but without neglecting the physical impression.

By Werner Beutnagel

http://www.automotiveIT.com/newsletter

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Courtesy of international - Automotive IT News and … 1 international Executive Report – August 2013 Executive Report: This is the 11th edition of the automotiveIT Executive Report