Audi gears up for next-gen factory automation with smart manufacturing

In the modern auto manufacturing industry, reducing cost, complexity and environmental impact is paramount. As part of its strategy to keep up, Audi announced that it has gone live with its Edge Cloud 4 Production (EC4P) IT-based factory automation initiative using the first virtual programmable logic controller (vPLC) at its Böllinger Höfe plant in Germany.

The use of such a virtual technology core is intended to allow Audi to build a manufacturing future that is more efficient, cost-effective and secure. Audi has been testing the EC4P local server solution at Böllinger Höfe since July 2022, with series production tests taking place since July 2023.

A local server cluster has been set up on the production site to control the worker support systems for two production cycles of the Audi e-tron GT quattro, RS e-tron G and Audi R8 models. In the future, the software-controlled, flexible and scalable server solution will replace the legacy decentralised control system that relies on high-maintenance industrial PCs.

In addition, EC4P will allow Audi to redeploy the computing power the production line requires to local data processing centres and is simultaneously adapting EC4P for other use cases in the Audi Production Lab (P-Lab).

EC4P is powered by VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) software, which Audi is using to deliver smart manufacturing by bringing software-defined factory automation to the shop floor and bridging the gap between IT and operational technology (OT), creating a private cloud outside of the Boellinger Hoefe manufacturing plant in Germany, where critical shop floor workloads are hosted and managed centrally.

With VCF, Audi aims to achieve a number of key benefits including better agility and scalability through cloud infrastructure; reduced costs through less hardware maintenance, and centralised software and operating system updates; lower environmental impact through a smaller hardware footprint that generates less heat, consumes less power and results in less e-waste; enhanced security and resilience through automated and centralised patching at scale; and use of immutable snapshots in the event of an attack or breach.

Instead of maintaining physical industrial PCs for running thousands of “worker stations” across the factory, these can now be run as virtual machines (VM) on VMware Cloud Foundation outside of the actual plant. Software and operating system updates can be done as a parallel operation instead of forcing them into the short shift changeover times. If a worker station VM has issues, it can be replaced remotely.

The VCF private cloud platform also enables Audi to centralise the management and maintenance of dedicated industrial PC devices located on the factory floor, simplify security patching and risk management, and reduce environmental impact by using less hardware and fewer manual operations.

“The use of virtual programmable logic controllers in the body shop is an important productivity leap in our 360 factory strategy for efficient and data-driven manufacturing,” said Audi board member for production Gerd Walker. “We want to bring the local cloud for production to all plants and leverage advances in digital control systems in the process.”

The initiative includes close partnership between key technology partners including VMware parent Broadcom, Cisco and Siemens.

Sven Müller, project lead for EC4P at Audi, said: “The collaboration between Audi and Broadcom is core to building a manufacturing future that is more efficient, cost-effective and secure. Through our work together, we’re setting new standards for precision, customisation and environmental sustainability.

“EC4P will reduce our hardware footprint, replacing thousands of decentralised industrial PCs with a more efficient, scalable and flexible architecture of local edge servers that unites the cloud and the edge on the shop floor.”

Paul Turner, vice-president of products for VMware Cloud Foundation Division at Broadcom, added: “As Audi seeks to take factory automation to the next level and benefit from a scalable infrastructure at its factories worldwide, VMware Cloud Foundation will enable the replacement of industrial PCs and specialty hardware on the shop floor with general purpose servers running consistent VMware cloud infrastructure software.”