VW will deploy a cloud-based industrial digital production platform
David Wagman | March 27, 2019Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Volkswagen Group announced a multi-year, global agreement to build a cloud-based industrial digital production platform for the automotive company’s manufacturing and logistics processes.
AWS will provide a range of services, including IoT, machine learning, analytics and compute services to increase plant efficiency and uptime, improve production flexibility and increase vehicle quality.
The Volkswagen Industrial Cloud will be designed to bring together real-time data from all of the Volkswagen Group’s 122 manufacturing plants to manage the overall effectiveness of assembly equipment, as well as track parts and vehicles.
Volkswagen will use AWS IoT Greengrass, AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT Analytics and AWS IoT SiteWise to detect, collect, organize and run analytics on data from the plant floor. The analytical services are intended to deliver new insights into manufacturing operations across facilities that will optimize production and improve process efficiencies.
The technology deployment will include a company-wide "data lake" built on Amazon Simple Storage Service to analyze the data. Volkswagen plans to use the tool to highlight operational trends, improve forecasting and streamline operations by identifying gaps in production and waste. The automaker will use Amazon SageMaker, which helps developers and data scientists build, train and deploy machine learning models to optimize the operation of machinery and equipment in its plants.
Additionally, Volkswagen plans to employ AWS Outposts, which bring services, infrastructure and operating models on-site to smooth functions that occur between the factory floor and the cloud for latency-sensitive applications.
Germany-based Volkswagen Group comprises 12 brands from seven European countries. The group operates 122 production plants in 20 European countries and in another 11 countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa.
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