SOUTHFIELD, MI -- The United States Council for Automotive Research LLC (USCAR) today announced the publication of its “Roadmap for Automotive Smart Manufacturing” for standards-based openness and interoperability of platforms and applications to enable a more productive, competitive and resilient automotive manufacturing environment in the US.

The roadmap was developed by a working group of USCAR, whose members are Ford, GM and Stellantis, in collaboration with CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute. The roadmap’s scope includes strategies to improve interoperability of manufacturing systems and to break down digital silos of legacy platforms.

Smart manufacturing requires a high degree of automation and integration of systems on the shop floor to deliver optimal performance. These systems have evolved over decades in a highly proprietary, closed manner. The resulting landscape of incompatible machine communication creates costly delays and complexity in product launches for automotive companies. Interoperability and extensibility of these machines is imperative to ensure cost-efficient operation and viability.

The Roadmap focuses on three pivotal strategies essential for fostering a more productive and sustainable automotive manufacturing environment in the U.S. These strategies are:

• Collaborate via real-time, data-driven business orchestration of digital processes within plants and across the value chain. Goal: flexible and agile processes and supply chains easily reconfigured for changing market demands.
• Enable innovation through application and data interoperability based on standardized, open interfaces that eliminate data silos, stovepipe architectures, and vendor lock-in. Goal: reduce complexity and improve efficiency and innovation agility.
• Develop a Smart Manufacturing Mindset aligning education, workforce development, and continuous improvement strategies to create data-driven cultures. Goal: organizational structures that align resources and people.

USCAR engaged CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute – to aid in the development of the roadmap. CESMII has a total investment of $140M from U.S. Department of Energy funding and public/private partnership contributions.

"The 'Roadmap for Automotive Smart Manufacturing' is a strategic initiative to enable sustainable smart manufacturing for our USCAR Members and their suppliers," said Dr. Steven Przesmitzki, executive director of USCAR. "By working with CESMII, we are able to leverage not only their expertise, but relationships with their members, the U.S. Department of Energy, and additional industry contacts to promote smart manufacturing as a critical enabler for advancing and improving U.S. automotive manufacturing processes."

Plans are in the works for members of the roadmap’s research team to present their findings as part of a workshop on April 15 in Detroit. To be added to the notification list for this event, please email manufacturing@uscar.org.