DICV Expands Capability of Commercial Vehicle Line

Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Freightliner Trucks, Western Star, FUSO Trucks, BharatBenz Trucks and Thomas Built Buses: The Daimler Trucks family encompasses six strong brands. We offer pioneering technologies and tailor-made products for various applications worldwide with a complete range of services.

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, Germany and operating under the umbrella of Daimler Trucks Asia, is a full-fledged commercial vehicle player in the Indian market and the only Daimler entity worldwide with a brand dedicated to its home market: BharatBenz. DICV produces and sells in India above 9 to 55 tons trucks as well as BharatBenz buses, Mercedes-Benz coaches, and bus chassis. DICV’s state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at Oragadam near Chennai spreads over 400 acres (160 hectares) including a highly modern test track and is home to the company’s headquarters, R&D, and training operations. With one global quality standard, it also produces for Daimler Trucks’ brands of FUSO, Mercedes-Benz, and Freightliner. Products and parts are exported to more than 50 markets in the Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. DICV represents an overall investment of more than INR 9,560 crores.

DICV is the only Daimler location worldwide that produces engines, transmissions, trucks and buses at the same site under four brands – BharatBenz, FUSO, Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner. DICV has exported over 35,000 CVs to more than 50 markets globally and also delivered over 5500 CKD kits.

Starting in 2016, DICV assembled the Mercedes-Benz parts from complete knock-down (CKD), a kit of the completely non-assembled parts of a product. DICV also was supplying Fuso truck CKD kits to Kenya for local assembly by a partner, and to a Daimler truck production plant in East London, South Africa.

The CKD exports are sent to Kenya, South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia; each country has different requirements and standards – and different parts.

CKD exports are kitted using process modeling in FactoryTalk® ProductionCentre® Manufacturing Execution System (MES), which mistake-proofs the kits by guiding operators and checking the kit automatically. Based on this, local assembly partners consume the CKD kits with full confidence.  

Connected Manufacturing – From Vision To Reality

DICV adopted elements of connected manufacturing more than a decade ago, driven by technology on a journey toward excellence with Lean manufacturing according to Daimler Truck Operating System (TOS).

Partners like Rockwell Automation technology have helped DICV introduce new products in a shorter timeframe on the same line. This technology also is helping reduce waste and maximize productivity, while providing guidance to plant personnel and machines to ensure product quality.   

The cornerstone of that technology is the scalable FactoryTalk ProductionCentre MES. FactoryTalk ProductionCentre and The Connected Enterprise, which resolve production issues in the short term, and transform them into operational advantages in the long term. DICV combined this execution system for the plant floor with the rich functionality of application software to enable both effective control of the manufacturing process and the integration necessary to create a truly Connected Enterprise.

Combined with ControlLogix® PLCs, Rockwell Automation® Software along with partner PTC, this custom Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform allows employees to now make decisions in real-time to analyze and improve manufacturing productivity.

Before the control room was designed, supervisors and experts on the floor communicated through radio and cell phones, reactively looking at report screens. With the control room, employees become proactive and can prevent issues from affecting production throughput or quality.

Real Data In Real Time

The addition of a production control room brought the data to the people, so decisions are quicker – improving productivity. With FactoryTalk ProductionCentre, DICV can now:

• Collect component and process data, track assembly (units) through each process step, and record the date and time when the unit was processed to validate components and facilitate error proofing
• Collect quality data to ensure quality targets are achieved at every step of production
• Facilitate demand to production and order management
• Display production sequence and operator guidance lights to ensure units are properly manufactured, painted, assembled and tested
• Generate serial numbers and build sheet printing for vehicle assembly 
• Share production order status with SAP

With FactoryTalk Production Centre, the DICV plant is able to:

• Handle multiple platforms: DICV produces multiple models and brands from one plant. This software harmonizes the manufacturing operations process between platforms and variants.
• Manage multiple variants: Within each platform, multiple variants can be produced. The bill of materials and bill of process for each variant can be different, but machines and operators get the required detail in real-time as soon as the variant arrives at the process step.
• Introduce new products: Any new product or variant can be configured by the DICV manufacturing engineers.  
• Maximize quality: Throughout parts production, FactoryTalk ProductionCentre drives quality processes to ensure inspection and testing are complete, and analyze data in real time to alert if processes are out of range.
• Maximize throughput: During production, data is provided to maintenance teams in real-time so warnings and alarms are immediately handled.  
• Enable real-time decisions through live production tracking, and reduce paperwork and manual processing to increase efficiency. 
• Connect the enterprise to the plant for greater visibility and control.
• Reduce lead time, manufacturing costs and compliance and governance efforts
• Improve historical data visibility for analysis and reports.

The results mentioned above are specific to DICV’s use of Rockwell Automation products and services in conjunction with other products. Specific results may vary for other customers.

Trademark Information:
ControlLogix and FactoryTalk Production Center are trademarks of Rockwell Automation, Inc.