Smart Kitting to Manage High Diversity in Production

Volvo Trucks Corporation (VTC) is investigating how the Eclipse Arrowhead framework can facilitate a transition to next generation production systems.

As product offerings become more adaptable and more custom solutions are available to consumers, there are greater demands on being able to quickly adapt assembly lines to produce different types of products. VTC produces low batch, highly customised trucks, where each truck type and each individual truck requires a complex array of components. The highly developed internal logistics system delivers materials, tools and components to operators at a predefined point on the assembly line. With the help of the Eclipse Arrowhead framework, VTC is examining the possibilities to move toward greater degrees of automation through smart kitting. Smart kitting involves presenting the kits of tools and materials at an optimal point based on what is being produced at a given time. The result is a dynamic self-balancing assembly line that is able to adapt to current production parameters.

Read more about the Volvo Trucks industrial use case here