Mercedes-Benz Cars Operations 360 (MO360) makes complex vehicle production completely transparent and maximises its efficiency. The new digital ecosystem comprises a family of software applications which are connected via shared interfaces and standardized user interfaces. These applications use real-time data to support the worldwide vehicle production of Mercedes-Benz Cars. Large parts of MO360 are already in use at more than 30 plants around the world. The networked plants supply data which the MO360 applications can access. Other applications for the digital support of production staff at Mercedes-Benz Cars are set to be integrated into MO360 successively. MO360 combines efficiency and quality tools in a functional unit for maximum transparency in highly digitalised automotive production. The digital ecosystem is being used in full for the first time at the new Factory 56 in Sindelfingen. It will thus serve as a blueprint for all plants throughout the Mercedes-Benz Cars production network.
"With MO360, Mercedes-Benz is setting milestones in digital production. The key enablers of the new digital ecosystem are smart data usage, maximum transparency and streamlined processes. This makes the seamless networking of previously separate processes possible and increase efficiency," explains Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG responsible for Production and Supply Chain Management. MO360 enables the automotive manufacturer to make use of cutting-edge big-data analytics and also to implement artificial intelligence methods in production. "Thanks to improved processes, comprehensive data availability in our MO360 data lake and fast decisions based on real-time data, we will be able to increase production efficiency by more than 15 percent by 2022. We are ensuring the complete digital support of each member of the production staff," according to Burzer.
MO360 integrates the information from the main production processes and IT systems of the more than
30 Mercedes-Benz passenger car plants worldwide and brings together important software applications. It delivers significantly optimised KPI-based production control, for example. It also makes individual, needs-based information and work instructions available to each employee in real time. One precondition for the transparency of all production processes, equipment monitoring and access in real time is that all elements in the system speak the same language. Mercedes-Benz ensures this by comprehensive, worldwide use of the control software "Integra": from sensor level at individual machines right up to production control, and also in its cooperation with all suppliers and system partners. Sophisticated cloud solutions deliver scalability and allow extensive big-data processing. All this makes MO360 the key ecosystem of Mercedes-Benz Cars Operations and therefore also the new benchmark for highly digitalised automotive production.
All in all, MO360 reflects the Mercedes-Benz Cars Operations aspiration to manufacture excellent products based on outstanding production methods. The ecosystem is based on all Mercedes-Benz Cars Operations strategic pillars: driving digitalisation forward, using resources sustainably, delivering the potential to use and expand motivated employees, providing maximum flexibility in the global production network as well as outstanding processes and maximum operating safety.
"A key success factor for MO360 lies in the fact that cross-functional teams of production and IT experts develop the ecosystem by agile and iterative collaboration. Organisational boundaries no longer have a role to play," stresses Jan Brecht, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz. "All teams systematically utilise continuous feedback from production to optimise and enhance the digital tools. The teams continuously improve the software in short-cycle sprints with the aim of providing MO360 users with lasting perceptible benefits. In this way we are able to achieve regular software release cycles of just two weeks. For software engineering in the field of production, that is an absolute record," explains Brecht.
