Case study: MAGIC EYE helps prevent unplanned downtime of ŠKODA AUTO’s busiest assembly line
When cars are assembled in ŠKODA AUTO production plants, car bodies are placed on an overhead conveyor, which moves them along the assembly line for individual production steps. However, the conveyor malfunctions from time to time for various reasons - with supporting aluminum profiles and conductive electrical tracks, or rails, being particularly prone to defects. Employees on the assembly lines must perform frequent visual inspections in hard-to-reach places and effectively plan maintenance of machines and equipment to prevent costly repairs and unnecessary downtime.
Monitoring of possible defects on the assembly line
The MAGIC EYE solution continuously scans the running beams and the conductive electrical tracks from multiple angles. The images are processed by a machine vision algorithm that is able to recognize standard and faulty status and stores the data in an AWS cloud storage.
However, workers needed an intuitive tool that would provide access to the outputs from the cameras and the machine vision. They needed to be able to review detected defects as efficiently as possible and, if necessary, order their remediation via central processes in SAP. At the same time, managers lacked a statistical tool for analyzing the correlation between the occurrence of defects and other factors – such as the temperature in the hall, a certain segment of the line, the team on the shift, or the model being assembled. It emerged from the IT architecture strategy that the entire solution, including analytical tools, must be built on AWS cloud services.
Reporting visualization layer with high-quality UX and a powerful analytical tool
The software analyzes a large number of images from the cameras aimed at the production equipment and provides associated metadata, such as the exact location and the local temperature. Our application visualizes this data, so the operation staff can view not only the details of specific defects in near real time, but also a time-lapse view and extensive statistics and analyses. Based on this information, they can make timely decisions to order a major preventive repair or, for instance, to send a technician to immediately clean the electrical track.
In collaboration with our Bell & Hurry UX division, we created a solution that provides all essential information and functionalities for both desktop PCs and mobile phones, with everything just a few clicks or touches away while respecting the brand’s aesthetic standard.
From early defect detection to improved work safety
MAGIC EYE enables early detection of lose nuts, cracks, and other possible defects before they can cause a failure. This way, ŠKODA AUTO can reduce losses from production downtime, which usually reach tens of thousands of euros. At the same time, the solution eliminates the need for physical checks of hard-to-reach devices, which improves workplace safety.
Advantages of our solution:
- A user can continuously check the status of the line on a desktop computer or mobile phone and, if an issue is detected, create a repair ticket directly from the application using a central form in SAP.
- An intuitive solution that an average user can master in minutes.
- The flexible design is ready to be configured for other ŠKODA plants.
What we had to accomplish
- Design an intuitive yet simple UX providing multiple complex views.
- Create an interactive map of the assembly line with millimeter accuracy.
- Dynamically generate real-time videos from a large number of high-resolution photos.
- Integrate the solution with another account in the ŠKODA AUTO AWS infrastructure.
- Generate reports on the AWS QuickSight platform and make them available in the application’s user interface.
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