To remain competitive, automobile manufacturers and suppliers must constantly change manufacturing methods to reduce cost, increase quality, and adjust to changing customer demands quickly and efficiently. Some of the initiatives being introduced by automotive manufacturers include aggressive cost cutting, lean manufacturing, and flexible tooling. The goal of modern assembly plants is to have the ability to manufacture not only two or more models on one assembly line, but also to introduce a new model easily. The last decade witnessed dramatic improvements in robot performance in terms of load capacity, speed, accuracy and reliability. This drastic evolution is driving body shop tooling toward a very lean configuration, revolutionizing the traditional BIW landscape.
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