Aegis Software > Case Studies > Case Study: Lear Automotive Electronics and Electrical Products (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Case Study: Lear Automotive Electronics and Electrical Products (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Asia

Country

China

Product

Aegis Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software

Tech Stack

Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Bill of Materials (BOM) data

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Cost Savings
Customer Satisfaction

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Manufacturing System Automation
Predictive Maintenance

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

Lear Automotive Electronics and Electrical Products in Shanghai, China, is a subsidiary of the global Lear Corporation. Established in 2008, the company is one of the world’s leading suppliers of automotive seating and electrical distribution systems. Their main products include central control boxes, tire pressure monitoring systems, remote keyless entry units, and door sensor systems. The company's customers span some of the top automotive manufacturers in the world, including BMW, General Motors, Volkswagen, Geely, and Ford. As a new facility in 2008, it was crucial for Lear Shanghai to quickly establish a fully functioning operation that could meet their customers’ expectations for product quality, on-time delivery, and traceability.

The Challenge

Lear Shanghai, a subsidiary of the global Lear Corporation, was looking to eliminate rework and shorten new product introduction (NPI) time to improve their overall manufacturing process. As a supplier of automotive electrical distribution systems, their customers’ expectations for product quality and traceability were a key priority. The manufacturing process is quite complex, and the company’s main products include central control boxes, tire pressure monitoring systems, remote keyless entry units, and door sensor systems. Decision makers at the management level must balance their customers’ needs for product quality, on-time delivery, and traceability while minimizing their own production costs and increasing throughput. In 2008, as a new facility, it was crucial that decision makers choose an MES software that could be quickly and easily deployed throughout the facility to minimize the time it took to run as a fully functioning operation.

The Solution

Lear Shanghai deployed Aegis Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software to improve their manufacturing process. The software's 95% out-of-the-box configurability required only a small amount of integration to achieve its full potential in operations at Lear. This simplified deployment compared to the other options considered, and it allowed for Lear to achieve a fully functional Shanghai operation in just one month. The software's unique ability to import, clean, and merge BOM data with the product CAD design data enabled engineers to compare product versions instantly. They could detect errors and changes that would require hours to do manually. This data was then used to rapidly create machine programs, build visual work instructions for operators automatically, and visually design an entire process flow/routing for production. The visuals designed by engineering were then digitally presented paperlessly in production at the right time, right place, and fully automatically.

Operational Impact

Lear Shanghai has achieved process interlocking by leveraging the process flow operators created in the Aegis NPI module. If a process station is skipped, or a defect is found that requires redirection of a product to rework, the Aegis system will force a re-route of the product to the proper location.
The CAD based visual rework stations enable operators to conduct repair and rework rapidly and accurately by visually mapping defects and repairs directly to actual product elements on the screen via the CAD drawings.
The facility now has more than sixteen real-time analytics dashboards in use on their shop floor and factory offices, each updated immediately as data changes occur. These dashboards allow the engineers to create their own view with simple drag-and-drop functionality that does not require IT support. Employees have instant access to key metrics including line performance, production output, defect information, and first pass yield.

Quantitative Benefit

Average new product introduction time has been shortened from 24 hours to 6 hours
Rework and debug time have been reduced by 50%
Average assembly rework time has dropped 28%
OEE and average productivity has increased by 10%