Failed combat and patrol vehicles - the Bundeswehr knows all about repairing their equipment. Particularly complicated cases arrive at the mechatronics center of the Bundeswehr. And that is exactly what the current innovation project of the month at the Bundeswehr Cyber Innovation Hub is all about.
What's the challenge?
In the mechatronics center of the Bundeswehr in Jülich, Bundeswehr vehicles are repaired, for example in the event of major damage or following an operation. The vehicles are broken down into up to ten different assemblies, overhauled and assembled. All parts are stored on the whole area of the mechatronic center. The area corresponds to about 13 football pitches. Searching and finding individual assemblies during assembly and overhaul often costs mechanics a lot of time and prevents them from working as productively as possible.
The solution looks like this:
Together with the logistics center of the Bundeswehr, the Cyber Innovation Hub has realized the idea of an interactive maintenance hall for "everyone" and linked it to the "Easy Tracking" project. Objects are tracked digitally. From this, the innovation project assembly tracking has developed further. By combining these two innovations, the assemblies can be automatically localized in a mobile app. In this way, the mechanics know immediately where the individual components are located and can share this knowledge with colleagues. As a result, the productivity in the plant could be greatly increased. Dead times within processes are digitally visible thanks to the position data. And not only the mechanics involved, but also the management benefits from the tracking of the assemblies. Because: The solution also increases the transparency of the processing times, so that potential for improvement can be identified.
How the innovation works:
Individual components are checked into the system by means of a QR code scan with a smart device and can then be automatically localized on the entire site by push-activation of a Wirepass tracker. The position of the individual components can then be tracked via an app on an interactive map throughout the entire repair process.
In the app, users can find work materials and responsible colleagues and organize tasks and meetings.
In this way, an entire department can be optimized using component tracking.
Josefine Neuschäffer, CIHBw
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