The main constraints of electric car technology – range & charging time – have been surmounted by an exciting ‘new’ technology developed by research company Nanoflowcell.
Using a liquid battery technology originally developed in the 1950’s & perfected by NASA their Quantino concept car combines positively & negatively charged fluids in fuel cell to generate electricity & harmless water vapour.
The car has achieved a range of over 600 miles on one ‘charge’
Major OEM’s have shown a lot of interest in the technology and the company is in talks with one ‘large manufacturer’ to put the technology into production.
Time will tell but there is little doubt – the automotive future is electric.
Mercedes Benz has joined the herd of Automotive companies who have followed Google’s lead in developing autonomous (driverless) vehicles for use on public roads.
But where is the demand coming from ? Who actually wants driverless cars ? It may surprise but, according to a recent Government survey, over 46% of us do!
Maybe its the thought of an extra hours sleep on the daily commute or the desire to squeeze another couple of hours work time in our already busy days; perhaps we imagine driving on our congested roads will be more pleasurable if the car takes the strain instead of us – whatever the reasons there is no doubt that some time soon autonomous vehicles will be a common sight on our roads and the investment decisions of the major motor manufacturers will begin to make sense.
Once again Google will be praised by some & cursed by others, but there will be no denying the Organisations prescience.
This year has been an extremely exciting & challenging one for me personally. In January 2014 I signed a 12 month contract with Tata Technologies as Lead Engineer in Exterior Trim developing & bringing to production Jaguar Land Rovers’s Freelander replacement the new ‘Discovery Sport’.
In January I was based in TTL’s Coventry office but spent a lot of time at JLR’s Browns Lane plant in the West Midlands, historical home of Jaguar Cars & now utilised as a Pilot Plant for small scale production.
Walking into Browns Lane was a great experience personally as I met many old friends from JLR having worked on the Range Rover Sport Programme. Although it is a large organization employing many thousands its amazing how many people you get to know working on a project for 18 months.
The pilot build is known as VP build & this stage of the process is very much a learning process. Some trim parts are still not ‘off tool’ & its all about capturing issues via the Automated Issues Management system. This AIMs system is used to track issues & ensure the proper fix is put in place before closure. It provides visibility to Senior Management & its administration is one of the Lead Engineer’s key tasks along with developing engineering solutions & working with key suppliers to ensure timely delivery of quality parts. Most issues require a PACN (to support financial justification) & a Engineering Release to implement the change. As most Engineers are responsible for numerous parts time is rapidly eroded before its time for the next build – Hard Tool Functional Build (HTFB)
This build took place at JLR’s Halewood plant where the Discovery Sport is to be mass produced & which was to be my base for the next 8 months.
Halewood is a large plant which covers several square miles & employs over 8,000 people. Most of the Product Coaches & Line Engineers were involved in the Browns Lane builds so there were many familiar faces at Halewood as well as plenty new ones. Halewood is one of JLR’s centres of excellence & the Engineering knowledge here is second to none.
Over the next 8 months we embarked on a number of builds increasing in numbers & complexity. This is a very stressful period for all & the nearer Volume Launch approaches the pressure piles on.
It was with a mixture of relief & a great sense of achievement when Volume Launch in December was achieved and cars began rolling off the production line at a rate of one every 40 seconds !!
It is important to recognise the economic importance of this model; Tata have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in this venture which has created several thousand jobs at Halewood & employed hundreds of thousands in the wider supply chain. With JLR’s commitment to source 60% of parts within a 40 mile radius the importance to the Regional Economy cannot be underestimated.
To play a small part in this great venture & to help take the Discovery Sport from initial concept to volume production brings a great sense of pride & achievement. chris@amberhill.biz
Engineering is boring right ? All that clanking with spanners & hammers & getting covered in grease.
This is a common view of people who haven’t got the first clue what engineering is or what it involves.
In the automotive industry there are thousands of engineers working on all kinds of projects & products. The job may involve design using autocad, working with suppliers to develop new components, building prototype cars, testing them in Alasks or the Sahara, getting involved in the manufacturing process, generating business plans and a whole host of other activities. It is tremendously fulfilling to be involved in the design & development of a new car model & see it come to fruition.
There are some fantastic opportunities in Engineering which are highly paid & offer the option to travel which are simply not available in other industries so next time someone says “Engineering is boring” ask them what they do which is so damn exciting.
Chris@amberhill.biz
www.amberhill.biz
This week Jaguar Land Rover released the following press statement:-
‘JLR creates 250 new jobs as Halewood is confirmed as the home of the new Discovery Sport
The Land Rover Discovery Sport has been confirmed as the latest model to be produced at Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood plant. The additional jobs announced to support Jaguar Land Rover’s newest model will see the Halewood workforce reach 4,750 – more than treble the number employed there in 2010. The Halewood plant has benefited from a £200 million investment to support introduction of the first member of the all-new Land Rover Discovery family, taking the total amount invested in Halewood over the last four years to almost £500 million.’
So why are JLR doing so well when volume manufacturers like General Motors Vauxhall and other Marques are struggling:-
1) JLR are taking advantage of a global rise in premium SUV’s driven, to a large extent, by the Chinese market.
2) Their customers are relatively well off & have higher disposable income.
3) They have targeted the export market, with over 80% of sales destined for overseas.
4) Their Quality standards are superior, the attention to detail is exceptional .
5) They have an excellent engineering pedigree with a stable workforce with many, many years experience. There is no other company in the World knows as much about four wheel drive systems as Land Rover.
6) Jaguar Land Rover has a flexible business model & employs many talented & experienced engineering contractors.
7) They use a proven stage gate development process (described in an earlier post)
8) They have enjoyed massive Capital Investment from Tata investing over 2.75 billion pounds in 2014. Not bad for an organisation which was on its knees before the Tata takeover.
At the heart of the Toyota Production System (sometimes referrred to as #Lean Production System) is the principle of ‘Jidoka’.
According to Toyota “Jidoka means that a machine safely stops when the normal processing is completed. It also means that, should a quality / equipment problem arise, the machine detects the problem on its own and stops, preventing defective products from being produced. As a result, only products satisfying quality standards will be passed on to the following processes on the production line.”
But there is more to #Lean than this. The key component is the empowerment of the Operator to stop the process immediately a defect or potentialy defective process is discovered without referring the issue upward. The Operator can stop the production process without fear of retribution and is empowered to do so. This is a great responsibility and one which is not granted lightly, the Operator must be fully trained and the Organisation steeped in the culture of #Lean & #Kaizen (continuous improvement)
Granting this autonomy is absolutely key to the success of the TPS philosophy & unleashes immense forces of creativity & quality improvement.
The News from Volkswagen Group this week that Bentley’s new luxury SUV will be built in Crewe, England is welcome news indeed, not only for Bentley Motors Ltd but also for the North West of England and the area’s supply chain.
Volkswagen Group (owner of Bentley) is investing over 800m GBP in the new SUV and creating around 1000 jobs in Bentley & the local supply chain.
This illustrates the Group’s faith in the Engineering & build quality of Bentley as it was rumored that it could be built in Brataslava alongside the Audi Q7 & Porsche Cayenne.
It is likely the car will enjoy a facelift as the EXP9F prototype received mixed reviews at the Geneva Motor Show. chris@projectsguru.co.uk
Today Jaguar Land Rover revealed the all new Range Rover Sport in Manhattan New York. This fabulous vehicle is a terrific example of British Engineering at it’s best. The West Midlands manufacturer goes from strength to strength with double digit sales growth across the globe.
Rumour has it that JLR could sell their entire manufacturing capacity for the new Sport to China alone.
The new Range Rover sport is built to ultimate quality standards and features many examples of innovative design, from the all aluminium body shell (which is half a ton lighter than the previous model saving 15% in fuel) to the class leading infotainment system.
JLR are leading the world in automotive product design and manufacture. Long may it continue.
Fantastic news today regarding the development of a National Automotive Innovation Campus at the University of Warwick.
Funded jointly by the Government’s U.K Research Investment fund, Tata Motors & Jaguar Land Rover, the centre will cost 92 million pounds.
David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, said: “The UK has world-class companies and great universities. This new investment will get them working together to deliver innovation and growth.”
“The automotive industry in the UK has seen a recent resurgence, but for the UK to remain internationally competitive we must create urgently a critical mass in research excellence,” said WMG chairman and founder Professor Lord Bhattacharyya. “Our vision is to create the National Automotive Innovation Campus where we link people, research and world-leading infrastructure to create and develop novel technologies.
“NAIC will be an ‘engine’ for economic growth, with wide economic benefit, and sustained growth from the creation of world-leading technologies. It will enable academic and industry teams to work together in state of the art buildings, with tailored equipment and digital solutions to create and integrate breakthrough technologies with a whole system approach crossing multiple disciplines.”
This is exactly the type of investment British Science & Engineering has been crying out for & is a terrific example of how collaboration between successful organizations and Government can work together to increase innovation & deliver high value added products along with well paid jobs.
Last week saw a little reported milestone in Automotive history when Californian Governor Jerry Brown signed through legislation to allow fully automated vehicles on California’s roads.
This took place at Google’s ‘Mountainview’ headquarters where the team have been working on a car which utilizes Google’s ‘Street View’ mapping technology, a number of sensors & some clever software to enable the car to navigate without human intervention. The company has already done over 300,000 miles testing with zero collisions so far.
So why is all of this so important ?? As Highways get increasingly congested it has long been a dream to enable convoys of vehicles to travel nose to tail in close proximity in separate lanes, breaking off as necessary, to reach local destinations.
Robot cars may smack of Sci-Fi but this development could herald a massive social change and a glimpse of the future.
Using a liquid battery technology originally developed in the 1950’s & perfected by NASA their Quantino concept car combines positively & negatively charged fluids in fuel cell to generate electricity & harmless water vapour.
Fantastic news today regarding the development of a National Automotive Innovation Campus at the University of Warwick.
Governor Jerry Brown signed through legislation to allow fully automated vehicles on California’s roads.