• Active or completed projects: 26
• Estimated ATP funding: $ 85.9 M
• Industry cost-share funding: $ 76.9 M

Potential for U.S. Economic Benefit. Changeovers to new car, van, or truck models are engineering and manufacturing marathons, taking U.S. auto makers and their suppliers an average of 42 to 48 months to cross the finish line. With more agile equipment and processes that sharply reduce the time and cost of converting factories to new models, the nation’s automotive industry can reduce significantly the span from initial design to consumer-ready vehicle and sprint ahead of the competition.

The ATP focused program on motor vehicle manufacturing technology fosters innovations in manufacturing practices that could slash time to market to 24 months, markedly better than even the best times logged to date by foreign or domestic car makers. Sought-after advances will lead to more versatile equipment, better control and integration of processes, and greater operational flexibility at all levels, from suppliers of parts, dies, and machine tools to assembly plants. With the reusable, modular equipment and processes envisioned by the program, the cost of retooling car-manufacturing facilities—now ranging between $1.2 billion and $2.9 billion, depending on the extent of the changeover—could be reduced by as much as tenfold. The savings would reduce the size of break-even production volumes needed to recover investment costs, making it profitable for U.S. automobile companies to compete in small-volume markets at mass-production prices.

The automotive sector, which accounts for about 4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product and employs more than 2 million people, will be the initial beneficiary of the anticipated technologies. Within the sector, parts and equipment suppliers, which will be involved directly in program efforts, will benefit most directly from the improved performance capabilities enabled by the technologies. Outside the sector, a variety of other manufacturing industries, from metal furniture to precision instruments, will be able to exploit targeted improvements in machining, grinding, and other widely used processes.

Technology Challenge and Industry Commitment. Designed on the basis of industry input, including 17 white papers submitted by a total of more than 150 firms, the focused program shoots for technology advances that can strengthen manufacturing capabilities along the entire automotive production chain. Because of their growing importance in vehicle design and manufacturing, suppliers are the focused program’s chief focus. Today, these firms account for about half of the value added in light vehicles. That proportion is expected to grow as automobile manufacturers assign an increasing share of engineering and development work to suppliers and look outside for components that they once made themselves.

Numbering about 3,500 companies, U.S. automotive suppliers tend to be small and medium-sized firms. Most spend little or nothing on process-oriented research, leaving them ill-prepared to anticipate and respond to major shifts in manufacturing technology and automobile concepts. An example of such a turning point is an end-of-the-decade transition to lightweight aluminum components for most body and powertrain parts now made with cast iron. If domestic suppliers are slow to respond to this transition, U.S. auto makers will be forced to look abroad to meet their needs for machine tools and parts.

The focused program concentrates on four major technical areas that underpin significant improvements in capabilities and performance:

• Material forming processes: Develop processes that substantially improve the quality of stamped sheet metal parts; improve stamping precision to achieve sub-millimeter dimensional tolerances; and reduce by 30 percent the time required to design, test, and produce sheet metal dies. Another thrust focuses on developing and scaling up manufacturing systems that enable a range of cost-effective applications of advanced materials in light vehicles.
• Material removal processes: Increase the capabilities and speed of machining and grinding processes, enable greater flexibility so that machining stations can be reconfigured to meet new-model requirements, and accelerate design and fabrication of tooling—the most costly and time-consuming phase of changeovers.
• Assembly processes: Develop economical, modular systems for body and powertrain assembly that can be implemented (or reconfigured) within 4 to 6 months, as compared with today’s average of 24 to 36 months, and improve technologies for controlling paint and coating processes.
• Systems integration: Advance technologies for intelligent, or predictive, monitoring and control of processes, and accelerate progress in efforts to achieve plug-and-play compatibility among equipment, processes, and information management systems, an emphasis that complements other manufacturing R&D efforts.

Significance of ATP Funds. In focusing on process-related obstacles confronting broad segments of the automobile industry but especially suppliers of tooling, the ATP Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Technology focused program addresses important challenges that otherwise might go unaddressed. Domestic auto manufacturers devote the bulk of their R&D to product research. The fraction allocated to process-oriented R&D tends to focus on shorter term, incremental improvements, in contrast with the major gains in performance and capabilities that the ATP focused program will foster. Moreover, individual car companies will not independently fund work likely to yield non-appropriable, or widely shared, benefits that competitors can profit from without having to make that same R&D investment. Beyond the major technological advances that it will spur, the focused program is expected to foster a more cooperative and more constructive relationship between auto manufacturers and their suppliers, resulting in additional competitive advantages.

At the federal level, a recent inventory of manufacturing-related programs, conducted for the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), revealed only a small collection of activities devoted to factory-floor technologies, despite their well-recognized importance to accomplishing PNGV goals.

Without the collaborative efforts that the ATP aims to marshal, U.S. auto makers and their suppliers would not mount and sustain the range of activities needed to achieve the major advances in technology, manufacturing practices, and industry performance that are the objectives of the new program.

Additional Information. For information about eligibility, how to apply, and cost-sharing requirements, contact the Advanced Technology Program:

(800)-ATP-FUND (800)-287-3863
http://www.atp.nist.gov
email: atp@nist.gov
fax: (301) 926-9524
A430 Administration Building
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001

For technical information, contact:
Jack Boudreaux, Program Manager
(301) 975-3560
email: jack.boudreaux@nist.gov
fax: (301) 548-1087

Date created: January 1999
Last updated: April 12, 2005