VDL Nedcar is a Dutch car manufacturer based in Born. The company specializes in the production of passenger cars and is part of the VDL group. VDL Nedcar collaborates with several car brands and produces cars on behalf of other brands. We spoke with Jos op het Veld about the Digital Workplace.
Continuum has been working with VDL Nedcar since the start, so the consultants have become a part of the team over the years.
The drive and commitment of the consultants is why we continue to work with Continuum.They embody the level of service they provide and possess the necessary and profound expertise; we can always rely on them. They are not only eager to learn, but also appropriately critical. They voice their opinions and can collaborate effectively with the team.
Every 60 seconds, a new car rolls off the assembly line at VDL Nedcar.To streamline operations, screens have been placed along the line to provide more information to production workers. Initially, manual chain forms that could be torn off were used. Both the front-end and back-end were developed in collaboration with Continuum. The screens provide additional information about which components need to be assembled on the car. Through colors, icons, and instructions, it's made clear to the employees what needs to be done in a simple manner. "The major advantage of the digital workplace is that our quality improves, errors are avoided, and it's flexible. Once a paper is printed, you can't do anything more. Now we have the ability to make course corrections."
The front-end was set up generically in React. The choice of React came from the requirement to be able to implement different visualizations (car data, parts to be built in, scans/scans, progress bar) in separate components. These components can thus be combined via a drag-and-drop editor by the business into a template, which is then interpreted by the frontend to display a screen for a specific point on the line.
The back-end is a Spring Boot application primarily serving as a proxy between the front-end and the underlying processes. It also handles WebSocket events such as line movements and communicates scan results back to the front-end.
Thanks to the digital workplace, we can switch gears more quickly, and the possibility of errors is reduced. We are taking a big step forward in terms of quality.
At each workstation, a box is placed containing the relevant components needed for the car production at that moment. When the box is nearly empty, a notification is sent to ensure timely replacement. This system works in conjunction with the instructions displayed on the screens of the digital workplace.
Continuum has been an established partner with VDL Nedcar for many years. As Continuum, we consider it important to maintain long-term relationships with our customers, just as we do with VDL Nedcar. In addition to working closely with the customer, we regularly organize moments to align with the consultants working there.
Would you like to know more about the customer case at VDL Nedcar? Or would you like to know how we can help your organization? Then please contact Mitte.
