Renault has announced the details of its new Re-Industry plan, aiming to dramatically cut the cost of building its cars.
The plan calls for the cost of making an internal combustion car to be slashed by up to 30 per cent and electric cars by a whopping 50 per cent, both by 2027. A big part of that cost saving will involve reducing the development time for creating new vehicles from three years to two.
Industrial transformation
"Re-Industry is a 360-degree transformation plan. The aim is to build on our strengths and to gather speed in what we already do well, to reinvent our entire industrial base and attain the highest standards in excellence. This industrial transformation will make our base more agile, more virtuous and more competitive, while also enabling us to respond more quickly to customer expectations," said Thierry Charvet, Chief Industry & Quality Officer, Renault Group.
Renault is pointing to other major gains it has made in the past few years, such as a claimed 'three-fold improvement in the reliability of our vehicles in two years' and improvements in its energy usage and CO2 emissions. The French car maker also points out that it was the first to set up a 'Metaverse' digital twin of its factories to ensure that they are working at a peak of efficiency.
According to Renault, the plan for Re-Industry is: "By building on these strengths, the Re-Industry plan aims to boost all the traditional areas of industrial performance while reinventing production through the development of innovative processes. In this way, for example, the Group is targeting a production time of nine hours for the future Renault 5."
Digital twin
That 'Metaverse' digital twin model is already producing masses of data - 12,000 systems connected worldwide, two million data items uploaded every minute, and three billion per day - which Renault is mining for efficiencies and claims to have made savings of €270 million already, mostly through predicting maintenance and downtime for major factory systems. But it can go further than that- by connecting the workstations and the entire ecosystem (transport, suppliers, etc.), Renault Group aims to cut vehicle delivery times by 60 per cent and the carbon footprint of vehicle production by half.
The predictive abilities of the digital twin are also going to be harnessed to reduce energy consumption and cut the carbon footprint of Renault's factories. Using the Ecogy portal, an agile, connected solution developed in-house, it is able to continuously monitor consumption and respond immediately to any changes in energy supply or demand. Renault says that it aims to cut the energy consumption of its industrial sites by 40 per cent by 2025 and is already halfway there since 2019. Regarding emissions from its industrial sites, Renault has set a target of Net Zero Carbon by 2025 for the ElectriCity division and the Cléon site, by 2030 for sites in Europe, and by 2050 for all industrial sites worldwide.
Artificial intelligence
Renault says it is also already using AI technology at its factories to speed up and smooth out some production systems, such as carefully tracing the tyres fitted to each vehicle to ensure they're the correct type and size. This kind of AI, says Renault, will be expanded to help create what it calls the 'Software Defined Vehicle', as well as the design and building of power electronics and the assembly of batteries and electric motors. AI will also drive shorter vehicle production times through faster processing.
Talk of AI often triggers concerns about future employment for actual, real people, but Renault claims that the deployment of all this tech is actually of benefit for the company's employees. According to the company: "By supervising the working environment, and providing increased visibility, the Metaverse allows players to be more agile and independent in their decision-making. Technologies from the world of gaming are making the user experience more immersive. This is the case in the paint shop, for example, where training is carried out using virtual reality even before the new model goes into production. This also contributes to cutting vehicle development times. AI algorithms make it easier for employees to plan ahead, while also enabling supply chain experts to optimise and manage logistics flows. Developed by the Group, the Supply Chain Control Tower is able to secure supplies to industrial sites by displaying the position and content of all trucks travelling between suppliers and plants, in real time.It can also detect supply risks associated with the weather or traffic, for example in any country, and recommend the best security solutions ahead of time. Greater autonomy, greater peace of mind for all players! With the Metaverse, all the components of the industrial base become predictive, more responsive and with a better ability to self-correct, in order to achieve first time right faster."
Other cost gains can be made, says Renault, by making its production lines more flexible and agile, such as fitting out its factories in Brazil and Turkey to be able to build cars that use the new Renault Group Modular Platform - that flexibility will allow Renault to launch 12 new models through 2024, and also to ramp up production of specific models if demand takes off.