MT Magazine March/April 2022

MARCH/APRIL 2022

FEATURE STORY

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production line where it needs to be to offload its supplies and then traveling back to where it can pick up more goods. This is not a Germany-only deployment. At the Bosch facility in Charleston, South Carolina, for example, where there are some 1,600 associates specializing in advanced automotive products for the Bosch Mobility Solutions division, such as fuel injectors and electronic stability program modules for automotive braking systems, they are using artificial intelligence to prevent and detect any problems that could occur in manufacturing. While [Deaville] thinks there will be growth in the production of end parts in the auto industry, he believes that lower-volume variants is where additive has the best potential. As Kai Woerner, the technical manager at the Bosch Charleston plant, puts it, “I4.0 is a key element of our manufacturing strategy. It supports not only our efforts to continuously improve our manufacturing and logistics processes but also to increase efficiency and reliability of all other plant functions.” The Physical at Magna Even among automotive suppliers, Magna is a special company,

given that it has not only an extensive physical global footprint – 347 manufacturing operations; 90 product development, engineering, and sales centers in 28 countries; over 154,000 employees – but produces a diverse range of products, from lighting systems to active aerodynamic devices to seats to electrified powertrains. Who makes the hot-stamped steel inner and outer door rings used for the Acura RDX? Magna. The aluminum battery enclosures for the Ford F-150 Lightning? Magna. What’s more, Magna has produced more than 3.7 million complete vehicles – such as the Mercedes G-Class, the Jaguar I-Pace, and the Toyota Supra. These and more have been manufactured at the Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria. The Fisker Ocean battery-electric SUV will be going into production at the Magna complex in Austria later this year. The point is: If you want to talk to a company that is making everything from optics to mechatronics, from castings to moldings, a company that can make truck frames and electric vehicle powertrains, thenMagna is going to be at the top of the list. One of Everything Given the wide range of production activities – and the realization that Magna just doesn’t make things to order but actually develops an extensive portfolio of products that are deployed by automotive OEMs – it isn’t entirely surprising to hear Todd Deaville, director, engineering and R&D, Magna, say “I think we, somewhere, have something representative of every additive process – in the big process categories, for sure.” Deaville adds, “Magna is very decentralized. We use this equipment and processes wherever it makes sense. So I’ll