Manifattura Lamborghini, Industry 4.0 for the automotive sector

In our exclusive interview with Lamborghini, we take a look at how they are implementing their own Factory of the Future vision to manufacture the revolutionary Lamborghini Urus.

The new assembly line dedicated to the Urus Super SUV is based on the so-called Factory 4.0 model, which integrates new production technologies to support workers throughout the assembly operations. Lamborghini expresses this approach as Manifattura Lamborghini, characterised by four basic principles:

• Craftsmanship: preserved and optimised with the integration of innovative technologies, conceived to maximise the potential for customisation while guaranteeing the highest quality standards.

• Skills and specialisation: computerisation enables workers, via touchscreen devices, to access production information made available by interconnected and easily-to-consult systems.

• Production process: AGVs (Automatic Guided Vehicles) are utilised to transport materials and move the vehicle during assembly. Thanks to this system, the facility's layout flexibility has been preserved.

• Ergonomics and safety: collaborative robots assist the workers to improve ergonomics and for highly-repetitive operations that require consistent superior quality.

The Lamborghini Urus: Super Sports Car

The company's latest creation is the Lamborghini Urus, the first SUV with the soul of a super sports car. It is a revolutionary car, not just in its concept but also in the innovative way it is produced.

To put Urus on the road, Lamborghini expanded its production site and adopted Manifattura Lamborghini. This lays the foundation for an entirely new production model, which will see the company shift from a sequential assembly approach to a modular one, supported by robotics for logistics activities, using AGV technology, and for collaboration with humans thanks to cobots (collaborative robots).

Human work remains at the core of Manifattura Lamborghini, thanks to the high-skill craftsmanship that ensures the superior degree of customisation for which the brand is universally renowned. But the central nervous system of the new production site is entirely digital, and features a Manufacturing Executions System.

Industrial challenges: the new Manifattura Lamborghini

The complexities inherent to the new model, together with the adoption of next-generation car technologies and a demand for higher production volumes, led Lamborghini to rethink the production process. Thus Manifattura Lamborghini was born, a version of Factory 4.0 tailored to Lamborghini’s specific requirements, which puts the importance of people at the fore.

High-skill manual craftsmanship remains a key value for Lamborghini, even in the manufacturing of the higher-volume Urus model. In our new production concept, the environment that surrounds every assembly worker is entirely digital and automated. It is, in other words, at the service of man. Secondary processes are completely automated, allowing workers to concentrate fully on their core task, namely the assembly of a specific part, and to unleash all the added value of their craftsmanship know-how.

Planning activities in the production department were aided by VR applications capable of simulating the productive environment, making it possible to analyse layouts, assembly processes and material flows.

MES: the central nervous system of the production site

Overseeing activities is a cutting-edge MES (Manufacturing Execution System) that manages all information on the touchscreen displays at every workstation as well as the tablets provided to workers. Alongside the factory's computerisation, an electronic vehicle data card (e-WPK) was introduced, leading to the total elimination of paper. This benefits Lamborghini with a live, real-time information flow from the system to the operator and vice versa. The MES manages all the technologies involved, namely factory equipment, qualitative processes and the maintenance and quality control of each individual vehicle, instantly identifying any issue or defect that may arise.

The system provides feedback on a multitude of operations and performs a consistency control on acquired data, from the moment the customer order is finalised to the time the vehicle leaves the facility. The process offers full transparency across every assembly part and every operation performed on the product, significantly speeding up the production flow.

The intelligence that manages the equipment is entirely cloud-based, allowing greater flexibility in software optimisation and increasing equipment efficiency in terms of availability.

From production lines to assembly stations: the role of AGVs

Manifattura Lamborghini has also revolutionised the concept of a production line. Traditional, fixed assembly lines have been replaced by AGVs, that transport the chassis and pre-assembled parts from one station to the next, allowing a flexible production system. Materials, too, are transported by AGVs (of a different size) from the logistics area to the production and assembly department. This technology has brought about a transformation of the production layout, in order to meet the needs of a market that demands higher volumes, advanced customisation and shorter time-to-market.

Collaborative robotics for a manufacturing process

The profound know-how of each Lamborghini worker and their skilled craftsmanship is an irreplaceable value that customers have come to count on. A car made in Sant’Agata, in the heart of Motor Valley, is unique. Nevertheless, Lamborghini recognises the precious contribution that collaborative robotics can provide for certain operations that are highly repetitive and require extraordinary precision, or even where massive physical force is required. A few stations, such as for wheel-mounting and windshield gluing, are equipped with co-bots that operate in symbiosis with workers.