Increasing production volumes and a growing number of vehicle variants require production lines to be repeatedly adapted and assembly processes to be modified. At the same time, planners need to take workforce utilisation, the use of logistics space and the overall cost-effectiveness of the line into account.
The Digital Planning Assistant supports production line planners in their day-to-day work and now forms the basis for the Group-wide evolution of digital production planning at Audi and Volkswagen. For us, it is an exciting, forward-looking project that has won three prestigious design awards, an app award and an innovation award.
With Human Work Planning (HWP), the solution is being developed into a Group-wide, cross-brand, cloud-based planning and optimisation system.
The dpa's intuitive user interface supports planners in their daily tasks. For example, they can enter new project parameters for an increase in production volume. The app's software algorithm calculates worker utilisation, visualises potential bottlenecks within teams and checks the availability of materials and equipment. Using information from Audi's IT systems, it creates a digital representation of real-world conditions on the production line, such as the shelving used for cockpit pre-assembly. Planners can use a tablet to digitally simulate individual planning steps directly on the production line, taking into account walking distances and tasks as well as the supply of materials and equipment.
HWP also supports mobile use directly on the shop floor and uses dedicated applications for specific areas of planning. Partially automated processes and a shared data foundation enable efficient, collaborative and cross-departmental planning.
Our work focused on developing a task-oriented usability and user experience concept. Equally important was creating a design in line with Audi's corporate identity. We continue to support the user-centred development of the solution to this day.
The technical development of the dpa was carried out by SABO Mobile IT GmbH. Its technical foundation is a central data backend with version management, which retrieves up-to-date data from various Audi database systems and manages the different planning variants. Mobile tablet apps developed in parallel communicate with the backend, providing both high performance and data security.
With HWP, the technical foundation is evolving towards a flexible, cloud-based architecture with open interfaces to the Group's internal Digital Production Platform (DPP). This allows the system to adapt more quickly to new requirements and scale internationally.
The roll-out already covers 18 plants in nine countries, with more than 2,750 users. By the end of 2026, it is planned to expand to 88 plants in 23 countries and around 15,000 users.
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