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WÖRTH, GERMANY: The increasingly complex electric and electronic equipment of the vehicles as well as the variety of commercial vehicle models require innova tive solutions for managing the production processes and quality control. By providing tailor-made testing and diagnostic systems, HOERBIGER Elektronik GmbH contributes to ensuring that Operational Excellence is not an empty phrase at Daimler AG in Wörth. (Page 14)

WÖRTH, GERMANY [49° 3’ N, 8° 16’ E]

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On site in the Mercedes-Benz Wörth Plant, possibly the largest truck plant in the world: Here different truck series of the Mercedes-Benz brand are produced in large quantities. At peak times, quite a few Unimog-based special-purpose vehicles roll off the line. The Wörth Plant employs a staff of more than 10,000 people. They ensure that the Daimler Trucks Business Unit remains a global market leader for medium and heavy-duty trucks.

The production operation of driver’s cabs in Wörth began more than 45 years ago with approximately one hun-dred employees. A lot has changed since then. Hundreds of thousands of vehicles have rolled off the line. And what’s more, the interiors of the commercial vehicles have become decisively more complex. The trucks built today are equipped with advanced electronics. In an effort to ensure that the electronics meet the high quali-ty standards customers expect from a brand like Mercedes-Benz, innovative and flexible testing technology is required, which ensures early in the production process that each unit can be delivered to the end customer without defects.

More than ever, Operational Excellence is a top priority in vehicle manufacturing. When it comes to quality control, companies have relied on the know-how and products of HOERBIGER Elektronik GmbH in Ammerbuch near Tübingen, Germany, for quite some time—from the hardware and software to employee training.

THE INCREASINGLY COMPLEX ELECTRIC AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT OF VEHICLES CONTINUALLY DEMANDS NEW AND INNOVATIVE QUALITY CONTROL SOLUTIONS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TRUCKS AND PASSENGER CARS. THE INTEGRATION OF THE NECESSARY TECHNOLOGY INTO THE PRODUCTION PROCESSES MUST BE SEAMLESS. FOR EXACTLY THIS PURPOSE, HOERBIGER OFFERS TAILOR-MADE CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY FOR TESTING AND DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEMS. IN THE LARGEST TRUCK PLANT WORLDWIDE, THE STATE-OF-THE-ART INSPECTION SYSTEMS FROM HOERBIGER CAN BE OBSERVED IN THEIR PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS.

TEXT: Kai-Holger Eisele · PHOTOS: David Spaeth

State-of-the-art testing technology

from HOERBIGER in practical applicationThe production line of the truck factory is almost one kilometer long. HOERBIGER’s innovative testing technology has long since become standard.

The mobile systems for fi nal inspection, the HOERBIGER Porty units, are connected with the vehicles’ interfaces for diagnosis.

CONTINUOUSTESTING ON THEASSEMBLY LINE

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The first impression of the production line of the truck plant is impressive. The line is over half a mile long. One of the first production steps in the assembly of the cab is the subassembly of the cockpits. A large monitor is suspended over the assembly station, allowing the employees to see every step necessary at a glance based on graphical representations. Tedious paperwork is eliminated; instead, the appropriate steps for the desired cockpit are quickly retrieved by the system and visually displayed simply by entering the relevant production number.

Visualization is one of the numerous key function of the Global Truck Testing Tools, in short: G3T, support software which was developed by HOERBIGER and is already being widely used in the plant. The prompt and flexible visualization of the operation is crucial for error-free assembly: Virtually every truck assembled here differs from the previous one. Individual customer orders are common place in truck production, with varying wheel-bases being the most frequent requests made by freight forwarders.

The G3T software offers assistance in particular with “flashing” and the “parameterization” of onboard computers, i.e. installing the software on the on-board computer and activating the desired components in the vehicle.

“An important program step for our customers is the setting of the lan-guages available in the on-board computer,” explained Michael Strobel. The graduate engineer focuses on production planning at Daimler Trucks in Wörth and knows the processes and functions of the G3T down to the last detail: “In general, we can offer almost any language to our customers around the world. By default, we program German and English and typically a third language, which depends on the customer‘s location.”

MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED TESTING STATIONSThe Wörth Plant has nine HOERBIGER parameterization stations alone. Approximately one hundred testing stations accompany the remaining manufacturing process. HOERBIGER Elektronik GmbH also supplies the hardware and software for these testing stations.

The highest contingent of the diagnostic systems used by the truck plant in Wörth are HOERBIGER Porty units, mobile test computers with conve-nient touch screens. The latest model is the Porty EVO III: Weighing less than seven pounds, the high-performance computer is comfortable for the employees to wear during work and convenient to connect to the vehicle interfaces. Using a wireless connection—the in-house WLAN—

the test results of each truck in Wörth are transmitted to a data center and stored for internal quality statistics.

The Porty is typically simply hung over the steering wheel and connected to the on-board computer of the truck. Because of their robust design, the Porty units are resistant to environmental stresses at the work station, even if things should get a little hectic and rough in production.

The Porty is not equipped with just any commercially available computer: at HOERBIGER Elektronik. The reason: “The computers in the inspection systems must operate around the clock in production and be absolutely stable. This applies particularly to the operating system.” Anyone who has experienced similar problems with their home computer can easily understand the level of expertise and commitment that is required from the developers to ensure the smooth functioning of a test computer. From development and programming to hardware design, approximately sixty employees are involved in this process at HOERBIGER Elektronik.

No paperwork: the entry of the production numbers suffi ces and the system executes the steps of procedure.

One of the fi rst steps of procedure in the assembly of the cab is the pre-assembly of the cockpits.

HOERBIGER’s testing facility supplies the vehicle cabs with voltage, so that the diagnosis of the electrical elements can be accomplished.

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TIES THAT STAND THE TEST OF TIMEDuring the course of production, the assembled cockpits are tested for the comprehensive functional capabilities of their electronic system, even before they “tie the knot” with the matching driver’s cab. For this purpose, countless wiring harnesses are connected to the test stations, which then simply follow along the assembly line on wheels. Nothing is left to chance.

While in the past completed trucks had to be painstakingly disassembled if any malfunctions occurred, today quality control is integrated into the production process. Speaking of aligning the production process: it saves valuable resources. “As a result, we have achieved a reduction in rework and better safeguards in production from defects,” stated Dr. Helmut Mayer, who has overall responsibility for testing technology in the Mercedes-Benz truck plant in Wörth. His excitement for the inspection systems was clearly obvious.

Due to the close cooperation between Helmut Mayer and the HOERBIGER developers, the testing systems are individually matched to the require-ments of Daimler in Wörth: “The high degree of customization and the ad-aptation to the requirements of our plant is one of the strengths of the HOERBIGER test units,” said Helmut Mayer. “In addition, they have the necessary mechanical-technical expertise and their on-time delivery per-formance, which is very important to us, is outstanding.” Flexibility, mobil-ity, and robustness are key demands that Daimler places on the testing technology. Anton Gleich added: “The individual nature of the customers’ requests must also be reflected in the testing technology. The customer does not inquire about the high quality of hardware products and software solutions. The customer simply expects it.”

Even in times of, or perhaps precisely because of, the global economic crisis, steady innovation is the road to the future for large and small com-panies. At Daimler in Wörth, the objective is “to get away from numerous stand-alone solutions and move towards comprehensive testing methods,” explained Helmut Mayer. Step by step, the entire plant is converting to the G3T software from HOERBIGER, making all manufacturing data immedi-ately available, regardless of the location and time.

The hardware itself will become even smaller and more manageable. The challenge is to install a single test module in the vehicles at the beginning of the assembly process, which could then be accessed at any station using a handheld device. HOERBIGER Elektronik is a strong and reliable partner for the future testing technology demands of their customers.

PARTThe passenger car and truck production operations already employ the third generation of the Porty for a wide variety of programming and test-ing tasks. The first generation was launched in 1995, even then bearing the Porty product name. At that time, the Porty was equipped with an Intel 486SX processor with eight MB of memory and the MS-DOS 3.3 operating system. The latest model, the HOERBIGER Porty EVO III, sup-ports all Windows versions as well as Linux and QNX, has up to one giga-byte of RAM and two processors with 1.0 and 1.4 gigahertz, respective-ly. When connected to the vehicle to be tested, the battery charges even while in use. As a result, the Porty can be used virtually continuously.

PART OFAs part of the HOERBIGER Group, HOERBIGER Elektronik GmbH in Ammerbuch, Germany, specializes in testing and diagnosis technology, control technology and general industrial electronics. The company was founded in 1985 and presently employs a staff of 60 people. The major-ity of the hardware and software for the system solutions developed by HOERBIGER Elektronik is produced in-house. The best selling products are standard testing and diagnosis systems, including the present Porty EVO III series.

PARTNERSHIPIn 1985, today’s Daimler AG was one of the first customers of HOERBIGER Elektronik GmbH after the company’s inception. In 1995, the cooper-ation with the Mercedes-Benz truck-production plant in Wörth began. Since then, the Porty has been one of the key technologys with regard to the testing technology in the plant’s truck production operation.

Flexibility is all that matters: the mobile testing facilities can be used everywhere along the assembly line.

Dr. Helmut Mayer is responsible for the complete testing technology of the Mercedes-Benz truck production plant in Wörth.

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