The future of automotive body-in-white inspection

29th May 2019

Alex Lynn

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The automotive industry is preparing for Industry 4.0 rollouts by making large-scale changes to all of their processes, from design and engineering to production and aftermarket. The method of dimensional inspection, on the other hand, is still largely traditional, especially in the body-in-white (BIW) phase.

Higher demands on production efficiency are causing inspection to evolve from a pass-or-fail function to one that controls and regulates the manufacturing process.

Frost & Sullivan’s latest thought leadership paper, ‘Quality 4.0: A Paradigm Shift of In-line Inspection in Body-in-White’, highlights the key trends influencing automotive BIW and the importance of reimagining dimensional inspection processes.

This whitepaper aims to draw the industry’s attention toward the need for a new vision for quality in automotive production against the backdrop of Industry 4.0. Quality 4.0 refers to the paradigm shift of dimensional inspections from a mere qualifier of quality compliance to one that controls and regulates the manufacturing process.

The analysis is based on insights from interviews with leading automotive players, BIW functional experts, and dimensional metrology solution providers.

"As BIW moves in the direction of Quality 4.0, dimensional inspection will become a fully automated, non-contact, absolute measurement process that is integrated into the production line. Traditional inspection approaches, such as coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), are being replaced by newer, automated approaches like laser radar systems,” explained Karthik Sundaram, Industrial Internet of Things Program Manager at Frost & Sullivan.

Prem Shanmugam, Test & Measurement Program Manager and Senior Consultant at Frost & Sullivan, said: “Our research and analysis show that Laser Radar technology scores highest in the Q4.0 index for BIW inspection during pre-series and process control during series production. We are very excited to follow how this development will change BIW inspection in the coming years.”

Access the whitepaper here.