Track: Industry 4.0 - Special Track

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increasing competitiveness in the automotive sector with companies having to respond to an increasingly diverse choice of customers. Additionally, the incorporation of several technological features in cars and the consequent dependence on several electrical systems has increased the complexity and demands of the wire harness manufacturing and testing process. The high variability that these products present has required the production of test equipment highly diverse and, therefore, with a high customisation factor. The adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies has proven to confer flexibility to production processes, increasing their efficiency, without compromising quality, production costs and product manufacturing cycle times. Thus, the application of this type of technologies in the industrial context of the production of harness test equipment could prove beneficial. This paper aims to propose a solution network composed by Industry 4.0 technologies and based on the Internet of Things concept, which, in the context of manufacturing methodologies, could make the productive system more efficient and less prone to failures. As a case study, a wire harness test equipment company was analysed.