The wiring harness, as one of the most elaborate and complex individual components, takes an important role. With electromobility and autonomous driving, its performance will have to meet new challenges. Usually, challenges of component industrialization are solved on-site in the suppliers' production plants. This time it was different, and at the end of November, a 60-member interdisciplinary expert team, invited by the Team Supplier Quality Wiring Harness (MP/EE4) met at the customer center of the Sindelfingen plant for the first Supplier Workshop of Low-Voltage Wiring Harness Quality. Representatives from the areas of supplier quality, market research and analysis, development, and procurement discussed important cross-project and strategic issues of the key component with partners of the suppliers.
Challenging times demand even closer, partnership-based collaboration focused on solution orientation
Ekhard Kaltenbrunner, Head of Procurement & Supplier Quality E/E, MB.OS (MP/E), welcomed the guests and informed them in his keynote about the current market situation of Mercedes-Benz and addressed the expectations regarding further close and partnership-based collaboration focused on solution orientation. This was followed by a lively discussion with questions, which were discussed and answered by Ekhard Kaltenbrunner, Gaby Peterßon, Head of Series Management, Project Control and Planning (MP/B), Oliver Letsche, responsible for Electrical Systems and HV Components (MP/EE), and Fabian Bähr, responsible for supplier quality and industrialization (MP/EE4) of wiring harnesses.
Customer and market requirements will guide our actions
Christian Rumler, responsible for Market Research at Marketing & Sales (MS/SPG), showed the guests which market developments are expected and that customer requirements are moving into the focus of our company's success. With a view to meeting customer requirements, suppliers play a central role, as it is necessary to manage short-term volume changes with high production flexibility and ensure top quality while maintaining maximum cost efficiency. So, when you initially think about what procurement has to do with marketing & sales, the circle closes here, and the guests were able to expand their understanding of our corporate strategy.
Automation comes into focus
The increase in electrical/electronic components in vehicles makes the wiring harness even more complex. Top quality with simultaneous cost efficiency can be optimized through automation, and the associated new production, manufacturing, and assembly technologies open opportunities. So far, a lot of manual work still is needed, as robots cannot handle the sometimes thin, soft cables and often extremely small connectors. However, the aim is to focus on automation. In this course, specific challenges of the flexible component wiring harness must be overcome. For example, in addition to gripping, handling, and positioning the thin individual wires, the very high variance of customer-specific wiring harnesses is also a challenge for the automation of production processes in wiring harness manufacturing.
Jerome Trommnau, from the team of wiring harness design in development (RD/MBF), informed about the approach and requirements of our wiring harness development. By implementing the "Design for Automation" approach in all phases of the development process, the implementation of the automation concepts developed by the suppliers should be enabled. This should steadily increase the degree of automation in wiring harness manufacturing for upcoming vehicle projects. Subsequently, this approach and requirements were discussed with the guests.
Learning from experience
However, main part of the workshop was the exchange of product- and process-related lessons learned. In the team of supplier quality wiring harness, wiring harness-specific lessons learned from various vehicle projects are continuously collected and evaluated. Proven practices are continued, and measures for optimization are derived for improvement potentials. A selection of these, such as preventing wire breakage as well as ensuring complete contact of connectors in fuse boxes, was shared, discussed, and possible recommendations were derived with the supplier representatives at market stands during the workshop. The “PPAP process 2.0” for the wiring harness was also a topic, and guests were informed about planned improvements to reduce administrative effort while maintaining product quality and process stability. Conclusion: Sharing lessons learned is crucial for sustainable problem-solving and ensures a continuous improvement process.
From theory to product and production experiences
Theory is one thing. Experiencing the product live was a highlight of the workshop. Supplier representatives had the opportunity to do this during a factory tour, where they could experience the end-to-end assembly processes of the wiring harness as well as necessary up- and downstream processes at our Sindelfingen plant. After the theoretical topics, this was an interesting change and relaxation.
Thumbs up!
The full-day workshop flew by. In the final feedback round in the late afternoon, the guests rated the event as valuable. Particularly the intensive exchange, the information and discussions on the topics and lessons learned, as well as the experience of seeing the invisible hero up close in our production, were rated with thumbs up and top marks. All in all, a successful event that further strengthens the partnership and solution-oriented collaboration. A good reason to aim for a repeat next year.
