ABB Robotics sees a bigger shift to robots and automation

The No. 1 challenge for building electric autos is cost, said Joerg Reger, managing director of ABB Robotics. The Swiss production innovator is addressing that by making its robots more adaptable and more autonomous. Reger, 56, told Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs why ABB is seeing a surge in auto plant investment during an interview at the company's R&D center in Friedberg, Germany.

Q: What is the biggest problem you are being asked to solve in automotive manufacturing today?

A: The biggest challenge our customers face is managing a broad range of vehicle variants. Everybody has to be very, very flexible. This includes the production lines. We offer flexible cells with a standardized design supporting multiple applications, for example, for gluing, for sealing, for spot welding, for arc welding or for assembly. These cells are supplied by autonomous mobile robots that bring the warehouse closer to the production line. In old plants you still see a lot of fixed conveyor technology. Is it possible now to do the work without changing tools, without stopping the line? That really improves takt [cycle] time, resulting in very high produc-tivity regardless of how big the variances are. This drives down costs.

Will mobile robots and flexible cells be the norm going forward or are they going to be a stopgap until the automakers figure out what is going to be popular?

Clearly, the trend is toward flexible automation. Having a combination of standardized, flexible production cells with autonomous mobile robots is the way forward. More and more customers are asking for them. With Ford, we have a large number of autonomous mobile robots. Jaguar Land Rover is now in discussion with us about this, as is BYD.

Automakers say they want to simplify production. What does that mean for you and how does that tie in with the flexibility?

Companies such as Tesla, Rivian, Xpeng and BYD have fewer options in the car, which makes it much easier to manufacture. When you have less complexity, a flexible line is easier. Configuring a Tesla takes five to 10 minutes. They are also reducing the number of parts in the body-in-white through the use of megacasting.

At the beginning, the others were laughing about ideas such as megacasting. But now everybody is looking at how they can reduce the number of parts in the body shop. We worked on that in China with Tesla and we are presenting the idea to others.

Doesn't megacasting hurt you because it reduces the need for robots?

Maybe we will have fewer robots, but then we come in with more autonomous mobile robots, resulting in more flexible manufacturing. We don't see the move to megacasting as an issue. If the companies go this way, we will support them. We are also doing more drilling and milling of the castings.

Does the current labor shortage increase demand for robots?

For all repetitive and dull tasks, we should use robots. When it comes to lifting heavy things, there should be robots. Flexible automation means jobs move to a higher level. We see more digitalization coming. We collect data from the assembly line, put it in the cloud, analyze it and give information back to the operators so they can make better decisions. Of course, maintenance on the mechanical and electrical sides will continue.