Auto Industry Drives Machining Tech

Entering an automotive machining facility can feel like entering an alternate universe for those who have never experienced it. Automotive manufacturing utilizes common machining processes like milling, turning and broaching, but the demands on machines and people are vastly different.

Automotive manufacturing has stringent quality requirements, requires very fast cycle times, operates on razor thin margins and has no allowance for delays. Creating manufacturing processes that conform to these demands can be challenging, but that’s what drives advances in manufacturing. Many of the advancements that have become commonplace in every machine shop can be attributed to the automotive industry. This article looks at the industry’s influence on several major machining advancements over the years.

Interchangeable Parts

Consider the concept of interchangeable parts, often attributed to people like Honoré Blanc, Eli Whitney and Henry Maudslay. It was Henry Ford and the automotive industry that perfected the engineering standards and manufacturing techniques that made interchangeable parts common.

A Moving Assembly Line

The moving assembly line is ubiquitous in modern factories. Everything from airplanes to dishwashers rely on moving assembly lines today. The moving line was another Ford invention that revolutionized manufacturing. Before Ford’s introduction, assemblies sat in one place while men and materials moved from place to place in the factory. Stationary assembly is almost unheard of in modern manufacturing — even bespoke items like a Rolls Royce are moved from station to station for assembly operations.

Lightweight Materials

Although the aerospace industry initiated the development of lightweight materials like aluminum, magnesium and carbon fiber, the automotive industry drove the proliferation of these along with the advanced processes needed to manufacture them in a cost-effective manner.

Quality Control

Automotive manufacturers also devised and perfected formal quality systems. Auto makers gave them different names in an effort to differentiate their companies in the market, but the systems shared common foundations in statistical process control. Quality professionals from the automotive sector have carried the systems to other industries making them common across manufacturing — making terms like capability, repeatability and process qualification common in manufacturing.

Reducing Costs

Given that cost reductions are a way of life in automotive manufacturing, automation is constantly advancing in the automotive world. Back in 1961, General Motors was the first to use robotics in a production setting. Robots are found in all types of manufacturing today, and are even being sold as options with machine tools like turning centers. GM was ahead of other manufacturers by decades.

Indexable Inserts

Indexable inserts are the standard for machining operations today, especially in turning operations. It was the high volume demands of automotive manufacturing that drove materials research and development that gave rise to the common insert. While the insert was not developed by the automotive industry, its demand for better cutting tools and reduced machining costs drove cutting tool makers to develop these tools.

Forming Techniques

Significant advancements in forming techniques and tooling have come from automakers. The need to reduce manufacturing costs and improve fuel economy have given rise to advancements like unibody construction. Making a car that does not have a traditional frame requires distributing the forces across the formed components of the body. Formed panels must be stiffer and constructed so that they can be assembled accurately. These requirements resulted in advanced engineering designs and complex forming processes. Over time, like quality systems, these design techniques and forming processes have migrated to other industries like appliance manufacturing.

Lean Manufacturing

One of the most significant and recognizable contributions that has come from the automotive industry is lean manufacturing. Taiichi Ohno, Edwards Deming and Henry Ford were all auto makers or closely associated with auto making, and each played a major role in developing the foundational concepts of lean manufacturing. It was the automotive industry that developed, documented and propagated what we call lean manufacturing today.

Automotive Industry Impact

In many cases automotive manufacturing has been directly responsible for significant advancements in manufacturing technology. At other times, as early adopters of technology, automotive manufacturing has driven advancements that eventually became common in all manufacturing sectors.

Automotive manufacturing is demanding. Cost pressures, volume and scale create a unique manufacturing environment. Because of this auto makers are routinely on the cutting edge of manufacturing technology, and their advancements benefit all other manufacturing sectors. No other industry has as much impact on “manufacturing” as the automotive industry.

about the author

Christopher Tate is the owner of Tate Engineering, a Natchez, Mississippi, firm that helps manufacturers solve efficiency problems. Tate, who holds a master’s degree in industrial technology from Mississippi State University, has 32 years of experience in the metalworking industry. Contact him at chris23tate@gmail.com.