Germany is the Western country that uses the most robots in its industries. It has twice as many as Canada per 10,000 manufacturing employees, according to the International Federation of Robotics. While automation is often cited as a solution to labor shortages, what can we learn from our Germanic friends? Visit one of the oldest, but also modern, BMW factories in Europe.
Car bodies of different shapes and colors move slowly one behind the other, suspended from a conveyor in the ceiling of the factory in Dingolfing, Bavaria. The place of delivery is labeled on each of them: Korea, Austria, United States. On the ground, the corresponding motor follows a similar rhythm. Employees install the radiator while their colleague installs the drive shaft. We are at the heart of one of the two assembly lines of the enormous establishment.
“You won’t find two identical cars here,” says public relations manager Alexander Bachner, who has worked for BMW since the beginning of his career.
If Ford invented the assembly line and Toyota invented just-in-time, robots from German companies, such as Siemens, have enabled German manufacturers to become masters in the custom assembly of vehicles, according to the specifications of their future owner. They can have a gasoline, electric or hybrid engine. A choice of a multitude of shades is offered. The diversity of models, options and accessories means that there are practically an infinite number of combinations.
Workers along the line therefore cannot install identical parts and do exactly the same thing all the time. However, they know exactly and quickly what they have to do. And we bring them the right part “at the right time in the right place for the right car”, according to the formula repeated by Mr. Bachner.
How is it possible ? The secret lies in a small white box attached to the hood of each machine. “It’s like the car’s DNA,” Bachner says.
All the particularities of the product are registered there digitally, in connection with an identification number. At each stage, a reader deciphers the information and transmits it to the workers through a monitor.
“It tells him exactly which tool he should use”, specifies the guide of the place which produces cars since 1973. A geolocation system contained in the rectangular parallelepiped also makes it possible to know precisely where this or that part of such automobile is.
A perfect wedding
In front of Mr. Bachner, a “marriage” is being prepared on the conveyors. This is the nickname given to the action which consists in uniting for life the body of the vehicle to its mechanical belly. The envelope is lowered quietly by a machine so as to align itself perfectly with its organs. Workers fix the suspension by hand. It’s the digital system that tells them how many turns of the screw are needed on this car.
Here, assembly is a close collaboration between robots and humans. A little further on, an employee has to lift an electric vehicle battery, assisted by an electromechanical handling device. Elsewhere, the alignment between the front and rear axles is verified by artificial intelligence, by a camera.
Suddenly, most of the lights go out and everyone disappears on a meal break. The signal was given automatically. “The digital system also tells you to change workstations after two hours assigned to the same task,” says Bachner. This is a matter of occupational health and safety, he explains.
Orange swarm without Aperol spritz
The group of visitors, made up of Duty and two members of the Délégation générale du Québec in Munich, then headed for the pressing plant. Thirty years ago, hundreds of unskilled workers could be seen there handling tools and driving forklifts. Today, they have almost all been replaced by a swarm of orange robots that tirelessly weld, rivet, glue, fix doors and other body parts. Parts are moved from place to place using autonomous rolling robots.
“Humans wouldn’t be happy to have to do that on a Friday night when their friends are at home. beer garden. But robots don’t have a mood and they’re not hungry or thirsty,” the loyal BMW representative points out, pointing out that there are more robots than employees. The latter are dedicated to supervision and maintenance work, which mainly consists of diagnosing and fixing anomalies.
The atmosphere is the same in the paint shop. These are the metal arms that turn in several angles to spray five successive coats of the right pigment, in the necessary quantity so that nothing is wasted. Again, the instructions are provided by the small white box. On the other side of glass walls, humans watch that everything goes without a hitch. They also inspect the end result.
Mr. Bachner admits it’s the robots that do most of the work. Despite everything, the factory needs thousands of employees, most of them qualified.
“Of course, digital integration makes our lives easier and helps us [avec la pénurie de main-d’œuvre]. But human skills are absolutely necessary to make the systems work,” says the communicator.
The factory took on 1,500 recruits last year. They went to the training center run by the company itself. To retain them, BMW relies on the quality of its jobs, judge Mr. Bachner.
Inevitable labor shortage
In 2021, Germany’s manufacturing sector had 397 robots per 10,000 employees, report says World Robotics 2022. This puts them in fourth place in the world in this regard, after South Korea, Singapore and Japan. Canada had a ratio of 191 per 10,000.
According to researcher Nicolas Bunde of the Ifo economic research institute in Munich, this high level of automation and digital maturity, especially in the important automotive industry, helps to reduce the effects of the labor shortage. work. It decreases the amount of repetitive and tedious tasks that need to be done by humans, keeping the jobs more attractive.
Still, 247,000 manufacturing jobs were vacant at the end of 2022, according to the German government’s Institute for Job Research. Since there are around seven million employees in this industry in Germany, it can be calculated that around 3.5% of positions do not find takers, says Stefan Sauer, scientific manager at the Ifo institute. This is better than the rate of 6.1% that we see in Quebec in the same industry, but not a huge increase compared to that in Canada, of 3.9%, according to Statistics Canada figures.
Canadian inspired?
Just as in our province, the demographic shock is pointed out. Baby boomers are retiring and births are not compensating. The Germans also have a birth rate equivalent to that of Quebec, reports the Institute of Statistics of Quebec.
Furthermore, 76% of the jobs available in the German manufacturing sector now require some level of education or training. The challenge for businesses is therefore to recruit qualified labour.
Among the solutions put forward, there is that of welcoming more immigrants corresponding to the economic needs of the country. “In discussions coming from the government, we often hear that we need a system like in Canada, to better select newcomers,” underlines Mr. Bunde. This is a measure that the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA) also mentions with interest. How Canada can draw inspiration from its European friends to meet its challenges, and vice versa.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.