Vehicle location system to expedite production of 3, 5 and 7 Series luxury automobiles
Santa Clara, CA — November 18, 2003 — The BMW Group announced this week that its plant in Dingolfing, Germany, is using the Sicalis RTL (Real-Time Locating) system, powered by WhereNet in partnership with Siemens Automation and Drives Group (A&D). The identification system will be used to locate any one of the new vehicles that come off the assembly line each day at the plant.
With real-time visibility to every vehicle parked in any one of 3,000 spaces across the factory premises, BMW said it is able to reduce production times, cut costs and improve customer satisfaction by expediting delivery of every custom ordered vehicle.
The car manufacturer said searching for cars is no longer necessary with the Sicalis RTL system. If BMW's Assembly Finish System — also known as "MOFI" — calls up a vehicle for finishing, an employee can find its location in real time on the intranet via a Web browser. The Sicalis RTL application graphically displays the location of every car in the plant.
"The BMW installation is the first of many planned deployments of the WhereNet technology as Siemens expands throughout Europe by offering automakers and other manufacturers radio frequency identification (RFID) systems," said Christian Friedl, director of information technology for Siemens AG.
Today's news comes on the heels of the recently announced Siemens/WhereNet original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partnership that calls for Siemens to offer products that integrate WhereNet's wireless real-time locating system (RTLS) technology.
