Huge Car Factory - Ford | Mega Factories | Free Documentary

[Music] the global economy is currently undergoing the greatest change since the industrial revolution in order to remain internationally competitive modern factories must be as flexible as possible and highly digitalized the smart networking of people machines and industrial processes is the ticket to a new age industry 4.0 [Music] in 1930 henry ford himself decided to build his next factory here today the ford plant in the neil district of northern cologne is one of the largest car production facilities in europe we have 134 assembly stations but if only one assembly station stops nothing will be built on the body shell afterwards there would be no paint and no final assembly the plant is a city in itself but everything runs together smoothly two parts per minute according to the daily working time results in a total number of parts which currently make up 1150 cars per day this hall is actually the size of 18 football fields this shows how big we actually are here [Music] eleven awards eleven engines of the year awards no automobile manufacturer has ever achieved this before the world is changing very fast if we don't change now in six months we won't be able to keep up today the factory is the only one for the fiesta in europe since 1979 around 9 million of these popular small cars have been produced here to be shipped all over the world [Music] the journey from the raw material to the car begins at the goods receiving department in the pressing plant this is where the steel is delivered from which the small cars are made employee michelle viedel gets ready to unload the 30 tonne steel coil for this heavy lifting equipment is used in working slang of the plant these rolls are called coils michelle couldn't unload the coil by hand anyway however even in the further course of production hardly any employees need to touch the individual parts which turn into over 1 100 cars a day in the ford plant in cologne no touch is the name of the concept to increase efficiency and quality it starts with the receipt of goods about 1 000 quarter panels or 3 000 huds are pressed out of it on the computer i take the call that means that the interim storage is called by me it is needed very quickly the massive steel presses consume up to 5 kilometers of flat rolled steel or 10 coils per day the gigantic pressing plant which could comfortably accommodate several jumbo jets leaves the visitor amazed this is not only due to the enormous dimensions of around 200 by 250 meters but also to the facts and figures press plant manager klaus paubance knows them all by heart in total we have 11 pressing plant lines with a tonnage of between 400 and 3600 tons the presses in the cologne pressing plants supply ford plants throughout europe [Music] in total 130 000 tons of steel are processed here every year this is a huge amount and it makes about 28 million parts the 28 million parts are largely used in the fiesta which is produced here in cologne they also go to other plants such as crayover in romania valencia in spain or zalui around 16 000 employees work at the ford facility in cologne but only a few of them in the pressing plant we have a three shift scenario that means we run three shifts a day 15 shifts a week we have 450 employees not only from the pressing plant but also from the logistics department we've got a tool shop and a machine park as well the tools are the huge blocks that are used to press the steel into the various part shapes [Music] here we're impressed tool maintenance we look after about 158 tool sets tool sounds small but it's a little different here [Music] the tool change time here is 15 minutes which is actually considered quite good in european or worldwide operations after that robot programs are installed new controls are installed for tool sets the grippers are changed and a test run is performed a tryout is performed to see if the first parts are okay that the parts are processed efficiently with the well-being of the employees in mind is insured by zara gillen the manager is convinced by the advantages of the no touch concept this no-touch concept ensures that a part is automatically stacked in a standard rack it can also be automatically entered or loaded and unloaded in our system in the body shop this is a huge advantage in efficiency anyone who produces as many steel parts as a car factory has to think about how best to move heavy parts from one plant to another flexibly fast and safely one of the biggest challenges for the car manufacturer and the real strength of this mega factory lies in the smart design of its logistics how that is put into practice in cologne is demonstrated by production engineer ibrahim chipsy [Music] here is a packaging that we've specially developed for our patented process the packaging is loaded with our camera and robot-based technology this principle is patented and was developed by us the patent is a gift to the company it enables us to increase the quality and production efficiency in the what's factory about the packaging is that we normally have simple pallet cages where the parts are placed inside at random with this packaging the parts are placed inside in a particular order and available at any time in the factory and can be used optimally in the further processes we've been able to introduce additional quality controls although the parts are dispatched to the packaging automatically the efficiency has increased because we get more parts into this packaging and the quality is also increased because the robots always put the parts into the packaging in the same constellation this means there's no loss of quality during packaging or removal in the pressing plant packaging refers to the transport systems that bring the parts from one place to another right next door the packaging is prepared with laser assistance the laser up there shows green dots on the wheel and according to the markings the employee puts rods in or takes rods out again if there's too many that was the first step we took to start this system in the further course of the project we're planning to build a system that relieves people of the hard work optimization is carried out wherever possible at the ford plant in cologne what is created here is often taken up by the entire group the no touch concept which we have put into operation here and developed ourselves is now the basis for raw plants worldwide it has now been implemented because it's a huge benefit however we invented it here in cologne [Music] and of course we now supply all the data to our colleagues within the food world because it is important that we continue to work as efficiently as possible how the no touch concept can be implemented successfully is shown in the next production stage uva vines is head of body shell manufacturing and is responsible for turning the parts supplied to him into car bodies he's the master of more than 1 000 industrial robots which also relieve people of the light parts [Music] [Music] we're standing at the beginning of the manufacturing process for the rear floor sub-assembly here we see a system that enables us to automatically grip bulk goods with robots without the need for employees to pick up the parts put them to one side or transport them further at this point we choose a robot because the part is very well suited to being taken out of the box by a robot this way we relieve people of unergonomic monotonous work which is then taken over by the machine and at the same time we increased the overall efficiency when feeding the parts into the automation process we use blue light to protect the camera from external light influences extraneous light would cause problems for the camera identifying the parts this would lead to mistakes and losses in the production chain a body shell is highly automated we have 1 200 robots in our body shop and the creativity we have here in cologne to invent things ourselves is high we make sure that this can be done as efficiently as possible and this experience is not only used in the body shop but also in the pressing plant the pressing plant may use the experience gained in the body shop but what is not used here is hidden beneath the surface [Music] here you can see a whole range of monitors on the monitors you can see what's going on in the basement there are different conveyor belts because each press line contains a conveyor belt all of the waste that is collected here goes up into a wagon we have about 40 000 tons of scrap or offcuts a year and that scrap goes back to the steel maker to produce new steel beneath the hall is a hidden tunnel system in which conveyor belts run for kilometers you have to imagine that we have a total area of about 50 000 square meters above and below the pressing plant down here are all the hydraulics all the scrap belts in terms of the belts we have a length of just under two and a half kilometers located below the press line alone they transport all the scrap to the wagons which then go back to the steel producers this way the waste parts might soon get a second chance to become a fender after all since 2008 we've been using green electricity on the entire site saving 000 tonnes of co2 per year we have special working groups which together always consider the costs because of course the world is changing and the techniques are new we're also increasing automation and every time we put our automation into operation we think about where the electricity comes from and what we have to do here on site to keep our costs as low as possible keeping costs as low as possible is the goal of almost all companies industrial companies therefore try to automate their processes as much as possible this is where the agvs helps agvs means automatic guided vehicle system so no person needs to control the system it works like this we have two sub groups right side and left side in each subgroup a part is produced and the driverless transport system brings these parts from the subgroup to the main production line in everyday work life the machines find their way around by themselves as i said the vehicles drive fully automatically and they also load fully automatically but they only drive and load automatically if the current condition of our facility allows it they have to finish one job first and only then they can start the new one [Music] employees don't need to be afraid of the agvs they have all the safety features and scanners that recognize us as people and stop for us at first the employees were very skeptical depending on how often they were in contact with the vehicles it took about three to six months for them to get used to the vehicle and its functions just like the agvs body shop boss ulvo vines continues to make his rounds here we are at the so-called clamp belt which is one of the core pieces in body shell manufacturing and this is the first time we see the body shell actually taking shape the frame was equipped with an rfid chip shortly before since the rfid on the vehicle carries all product information the system knows which vehicle is to be built next by reading it out three-door or five-door vehicle the robots are then controlled accordingly and pick up the side deciding walls this means that the three-door part is added to the three-door floor the five-door part to the five-door floor the machine knows this completely automatically and this process is carried out for the entire body shell construction it's used in the paintwork and the final assembly as well until the car arrives at the dealers who then removes this tag during the first inspection where chips set the pace and driverless transport systems whizz across the corridors a so-called cobot is not far away this refers to a robot that works with humans the special thing about what we see before us is the interaction between man and machine the employee is protected by sensitive sensors built into the robot and here for the first time we have the possibility for a robot to carry out its tasks unprotected without a fence and in a very confined space together with the employee his colleagues get along well with the robot his name is uncle manfred uncle manfred does the gluing actually work with him when i do my job he does my prep work and it fits we meet right in the middle that's a good thing i don't get covered in glue i'm clean and that's worth a lot no glue on my gloves and that's a good thing however uncle manfred is the exception the vast majority of industrial robots are gruff powerhouses from which their human colleagues have to be protected by blue fences nobody should get in their way their rapid and monotonous movements do not take careless employees into account their fascinating moves are best observed from a safe distance [Music] in the meantime uber has reached the soldering section here the roof and sidewalls are inseparably joined together the lasers are so powerful that they are too dangerous for human eyes and must be concealed in a protective chamber the automatic conveyor system conveys up to 50 car bodies per hour along the line to the soldering cabin which resembles a garage we're standing at the end of the so-called laser soldering line in this stage we joined the roof to the pre-welded body the special thing about this is that we don't use spot welded joints but a laser soldering technique this means that a laser supplies the energy and the soldering wire is fed in this is how the connection between the roof and the side walls are made in the cell the roof is soldered to the side wall so why laser laser technology is very precise and has a very high process speed with laser soldering thin smooth seams are achieved which you can see on the car afterwards the complex part is that our devices have to generate a so-called zero gap this means that the gap between the roof and the sidewall must be close to zero to within a tenth of a millimeter the big advantage of laser soldering is that the overall structure of the body can be kept much stiffer than with regular spot welding [Music] this laser seam line is extremely sensitive to any deviation and must be joined with high precision this is the camera there's a camera incorporated in the laser head it makes a high-speed recording of the laser soldering process our set parameters are at 3 000 watts on a few square millimeters of 5000 parts of vinegar quadrat millimeter it's like concentrating the full energy of 50 domestic light bulbs on one point the varnishing will show if they last after soldering the engine hoods and other moving parts are attached to the now fixed frame the body can soon be varnished at the end of the hall where the pressing plant and body shell production are located things become very calm and focused random samples are taken in the measuring laboratory to check whether the components meet exact specifications deviations are only accepted in the micrometer range engineer guillochty slick can rely on several systems for this the futuristic looking eagle eye system and contact measurement we have different measuring methods here one is optical measurement and the other is tactile measurement optical measurement is contactless i.e the sensor doesn't touch the part tactile measurement has a measuring tip that moves up to the component and scans it in order to generate data that we have in the measuring machine's coordinate system we have a measuring program for each component which we then work through for a target actual comparison if the eagle eye or the tactile measuring instrument find deviations that exceed certain tolerances the production process is examined [Music] even if it is faultlessly constructed a car will not run without an engine conveniently it's built right next door around 500 employees work in three shifts to produce the heart of the small car [Music] thomas meyer is plant manager of the engine works which is also located in cologne the engineer is proud of his product this engine is especially good because it's the latest generation it's well tuned in terms of friction it has bearing combinations coordinated in the micrometer range which is hardly visible on your hand it has an adjustable oil pump which no engine in this class has it has a split cooling circuit inside the engine regular in this class is one this one [Music] station i fill up with petrol or diesel in this case it's petrol the petrol is injected into a cylinder chamber via fuel pumps and injection pumps [Music] this gets compressed and fresh air is brought in then there's a fuel air mixture which is ignited by a spark then there's an explosion which causes the piston to move the crankshaft to move and the transmission to move the car the parts come either from other ford plants or from suppliers although not yet ready for installation if the engine works almost every part is worked at before it is installed for example each individual crankshaft must be precisely balanced maya explains why these are balancing machines and they're used to balance the weight of the crankshaft the crankshaft is the heart of the engine and has to run smoothly at high or low revs if the crankshaft doesn't run smoothly vibrations build up and can lead to serious engine damage a practical example in the army it's forbidden for many people to march in step over a bridge the bridge can start to vibrate and the vibration can destroy the bridge in this case it's the same if there's an imbalance a harmonic vibration builds up and this can lead to serious engine damage therefore you have to drill off certain weight proportions this is then called balancing [Music] but how do the machines know how much material to drill off i know the drill diameter the depth and the density of the material so we know how much we have to take out to have a defined imbalance [Music] the finely balanced crankshafts the heart of the engine are now ready for installation but before the 2000 individual parts become an engine they pass through around 50 production steps during this process a data profile is created for each engine which is used during production but can also be useful afterwards each engine gets its identification number at the beginning of the line and a lot of data is collected for this identification number if an engine should ever leak in the field we can look at the engine number and find out when it was built when it went through this plant and when the sealant is not only important on the engine but also on the body the vehicle frames are now completely assembled and the next step for them is the giant paint shop before they get their respective colour the seams are thoroughly sealed production engineer dennis kuhn explains how the sheet metal parts are manufactured and welded together in the body shop there are small gaps between the sheet metal parts and we seal these gaps here this is also known as seam sealing and we do this here we have 20 robots distributed over two lines the body enters the line and is measured precisely by a camera system this data is then transmitted to the robots the robot is then able to place the ceiling material exactly over these seams or over these gaps together we build a total of 70 units per hour on both lines after the automatic line we have another employee area the employees check the seams done by the robots finish some of them and then lay additional seams especially in areas which are difficult to get to like in the door areas before the seams were sealed the frames were only given a primer coat this area is the last production step in which they are not yet assigned a specific order [Music] dennis has arrived at the paint line where the bodies get their paint an area that is strictly separated from the rest of the paint shop as the whole production section is called only now on the paint line are the car bodies given an identity [Music] before the paint is applied to the primer a very soft and flexible cleaner does its work the so-called emu rolls are supposed to remove the very last particles of dust [Music] the name comes from the fact that the system is equipped with feathers from the emu they have the property that they absorb dust very well that's why these side rollers run over the surface of the car body and bind any layers of dust apart from the emu feathers the system is highly computerized first we apply the finishing coat in the paint line with 35 robots this is the visible coat that gives the fiesta its colouring we're able to apply up to 16 colours at the same time in this paint line we have an intelligent car body control system which specifies the colors as the bodies enter the paint line depending on the subsequent clear coat which is then applied the whole thing starts in the primer because the colors build on each other first comes the primer which is the basic layer and depending on the primer the top and the clear coat is applied a darker primer is usually applied first with the two employees can breathe in without concern despite the nearby paint spraying facilities due to strong ventilation in the paint line it is neutral in smell [Music] basically we suck in fresh air from the outside which is conditioned and also humidified this air is then passed through filters in the ceiling and directed from above down into the paint line this is known as controlling the airflow velocity and it also helps us to ensure that excess paint particles that do not land on the car body are deflected and discharged in thomas mayer's workshop the engines are now fully assembled and ready for the black light test that is the examination with black light will they find a leak [Music] i have a camera i have black light and there's oil in the engine the engine has already been tested cold has been rotated a few times and then i'll have a look if there's oil leaking from the engine the oil contains a fluorescent agent which can be seen with the black light on the screen there are predefined areas of the engine where there could be leaks component pairings that have been sealed and where oil can leak out the peculiarity of our engine production is that we test one hundred percent of all engines using this test this test ensures that the engine doesn't leak and only 2.5 of our engines are tested using the hot test that means 2.5 percent of our engines are started the rest is only tested cold and then installed in the vehicles this is a special feature for the high quality standard we have here we do not have to test 100 per cent quality inspector thomas biller is responsible for the samples taken from production he carries out the hot test or the hot run and that too begins in the dark every engine that is fired is again thoroughly checked for possible leaks using a uv lamp [Music] if thomas doesn't find anything the hot run can begin this is a function test bench for the engines coming off the line random engines are tested here other car manufacturers are still at 100 we started at 5 we're at 2.5 now and for quality reasons we always do spot checks for us it's absolutely legitimate to have 2.5 percent thomas makes final preparations the test engine is connected [Music] here the engine is fired with petrol filled with water and connected to the electrical system that's a hot run a lot of experience is needed for the job there are various things thomas has to pay attention to from examining the engine to see if there are any faults for example is there a leak during the test run does the engine make any noises any rattling or does it function faultlessly he detects suspicious noises using an unexpected method we have a very old method for this the so-called ear trumpet when i put it on the engine i hear different noises you have to be trained for this [Music] you have to have some experience in the automotive field because the engine makes lots of different sounds every part sounds different so you need experience to hear it as soon as everything is ready he starts the test routine about 15 times per shift [Music] checks are also carried out in the paint shop first the car bodies pass through a dirt and paint detection machine the machine that you can see behind me spots dirt in the finish a light portal is moved through a frame and cameras spot anything caught in the painted surface the lamps and the camera system together with a sophisticated algorithm detect these inclusions and show the faults on monitors the employee will then rework the defects while the process is running here every floor in the paintwork is discovered nowadays however mainly by cameras [Music] in the past the employees had to find the errors themselves this has now been made easier for them with this system this means they can spend more time processing the faults and less time looking for and finding them nevertheless the employee still has to keep a close eye on the entire surface [Music] the system itself stores the errors associated with the car body and outputs them line tracked with the car body on the conveyor belt this information is also recorded and then always displayed at the exact workstation where the monitors are and located side and it almost always works now it's on the next one already the next car [Music] under the light which clearly highlights anything that's uneven the cameras on the ceiling detect spots that are only a few millimeters in size we have a tolerance blue a small faults up to 0.3 anything above that the larger faults is then marked in red spotlessly polished the bodies leave the paint shop and disappear into a huge silo here they wait to be picked up for final assembly a fully automated system takes care of the storage and pickup always taking exactly the car body that is next in line depending on the order and delivery time [Music] [Music] betty chirian otto is one of two people who coordinate the final assembly at the ford plant in cologne we are responsible for safety at work for the quality of our ford fiesta and of course for the number of units we have to produce here every day by this i mean that we produce an unbelievable 1150 vehicles per day via two parallel systems with a cycle time of 82 seconds this means that we have two fiestas coming off the assembly line here every 82 seconds to be able to handle these quantities systematically betty and her team need one thing above all else space this hall is 18 football fields in size and this really shows how big we are about 326 employees per shift work on our fort fiesta which has an incredible 4 300 parts how do we as division managers actually keep track of things here we are indeed dependent on our great employees in addition communication is incredibly important in this large area how do we do that we communicate here exclusively on mobile phones given the fact that we produce two fiestas in 82 seconds we have to act very quickly here so in 82 seconds we can't afford a 60-second break as that might mean we've already lost one fiesta like this anyone who doesn't know their way around here can easily lose their bearings but everything is strictly organized we have ten lines here each with a full man a four man has about 30 to 40 employees a line is basically divided into four teams which are supervised by a team coach who always has to step in when an employee needs to go to the toilet or when a quality problem arises or when there's a problem with the tool so it is possible to act flexibly and provide support the employees also get support from a computer more precisely from a touch screen on which they can complete a virtual training session directly at their workplace all the stations in the final assembly and all the required actions follow a set logic this is clearly explained in short 3d tutorials [Music] next week i'm supposed to learn a new job before that i was shown virtually which movements i have to do there if i want to learn a new job and develop my skills further i asked the foreman if that's okay if he gives me the okay we train this virtually first and then at the workplace and in an emergency it can also happen that i have to step in every employee can go to the touch screen to acquire the knowledge they need it can also serve as a refresher if we're short-handed this might happen once a month otherwise according to demand if i feel ready to go on to another workplace i can take the virtual training and learn about it employees already know their own work steps but we need them to be flexible there has to be some rotation among themselves so they can also swap jobs from time to time some members of our team would like to rotate after every cycle there are others who have reached a certain age and are only doing one station and are happy with it we react to what the employees themselves would like only a few steps remain until the 4 300 individual parts have become a road-worthy automobile a great moment chassis and body are united in cologne however there is an additional special feature we're here at the marriage the marriage is the joining together of the chassis and bodywork basically this is where the heart is put into our fiesta and this is what every car manufacturer calls it the special thing about our marriage in contrast to all our competitors is that our marriage is fully automated no employee has to take responsibility for the precision of this combination between body and chassis the automation continues to the end now the front back and rear windows are fitted to the small car the different possible configurations are managed by the systems independently [Music] representative for all our systems these line here use so-called scanners which scan the label on the roof of our car bodies basically they pass the information onto our systems which then know exactly what type of vehicle it is they know exactly what to do which type of glass to pick up whether light or dark with chrome or without chrome and especially with regard to our three-door or five door models it is relevant to know how many windows are to be installed in the body work [Applause] equipped with the right set of windows and married to the chassis the car is now fitted with the wheels then it's completed since the coil was delivered to the press shop it has taken 12 hours to get the ford standing on its own axles for the first time but finished not quite [Music] in the very last step of our entire production so-called ecats devices are placed on the steering wheels and connected to the vehicles these devices are used to configure or program functions within the vehicle these are things like the radio settings for example or the radio itself the touch screen inside the car must be configured and programmed according to customer requirements and wishes this includes the interior lighting which goes on or off in certain modes all this is configured and programmed using these ecats devices however there is also one thing that is indispensable in final assembly an employee has to physically perform various actions he has to operate the clutch the brake or switch the lights on and off the device as such cannot do this now the fiesta can literally roll off the proverbial assembly line as one of 1150 in cologne every day round the next corner the customers or rather their critical eye is already waiting we are here at the final inspection the cal or customer acceptance line as it's called we look at the car from a customer's perspective in each shift we look at about 600 cars we inspect the entire outer skin of the vehicle move around the vehicle to check for faults dirt inclusions dents and bumps the second step is the interior inspection where the doors are opened and all interior panels are checked [Music] i'm always happy when we check a car and it's turned out well because then the customer's happy and we all benefit from it that's why i drive a fiesta myself [Music] in 1932 the first vehicle rolled off the production line in neil at that time the capacity was still 60 cars per day since then the output in the cologne mega plant has increased 20 fold [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), engineering, engineering documentary, factory, mega factory, mega factories, world biggest factories, car factory, ford factory, car production, car production process, production process, ford feista, ford fiesta production, how a car is produced

Id: GvWCsk-cmUU

Length: 45min 43sec (2743 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 26 2021