AMGC and Siemens to help HSV digitalise, expand and export
AMGC is excited to announce a collaborative project with Siemens and HSV that will help HSV expand their production lines and tap into global export opportunities for their performance vehicles.
The Hon Karen Andrews, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, visited HSV’s automotive production line in Clayton, Victoria in November to launch the project.
According to Minister Andrews, “What’s so exciting about this announcement is that it demonstrates the benefits of going digital in all types of industries. By increasing the digitalisation of HSV’s manufacturing process, they expect at least a 20% increase in performance,” said Minister Andrews. “This will in turn create more demand for the local supply chain.”
“Embracing digital technology allows Australian manufacturers to compete on value, not on cost, which is so important to their ongoing success and will allow them to grow and create new local jobs,” Minister Andrews said.
Digitalisation to support expansion
Specialising in vehicle enhancement and re-engineering, HSV builds an array of modified vehicles, most of which are based on Holden models.
Over the last two years HSV has expanded rapidly, moving to its new $30 million facility, complete with a styling studio, engineering workshop, and four separate production lines over 28,000m2 of floor space. Staff numbers have increased as well, with approximately 350 employees operating one of their production lines 24 hours day (across three shifts) to keep pace with demand.
Tim Jackson (Chief Executive Officer, HSV) is certain the digitisation of HSV’s design, engineering and production system will support the company’s expansion. “The re-manufacturing process requires significantly more work to the vehicles than when we were producing the Commodore. This software will make a big difference to the flow of information across our organisation and will connect everyone through a centralised digital thread.”
“Each new product adds between 350 and 600 new components. This hi-tech software will support our new model portfolio. In order to bring these new vehicles to life we have nearly twice as many engineers, and five times the manufacturing team than when we rolled the last Commodore off the line. We are proud of the level of design and engineering happening in Australia, and the use of software tools to improve our productivity,” said Jackson.
A giant step towards Industry 4.0
Enabled by AMGC’s project fund, the collaboration will see HSV implement Siemens’ state-of-the-art product lifecycle management software—Teamcenter—taking a giant step towards Industry 4.0.
Teamcenter is the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management software. It connects people and processes, across functional areas, with a digital thread for innovation. People throughout an organisation can take part in the product development process than previously possible.
Further information
The project will see HSV set the benchmark for other small-to-medium enterprises looking to digitalise and scale up their production capabilities.
As such, once the project is complete, AMGC and HSV will share key learnings through a series of workshops around Australia. Be sure to keep an eye on the AMGC Events page for further information on these workshops.