ESG-Spektrum08-2.pdf, pages 1-16

ENGLISH SUMMARY
Overcoming barriers for the “artificial
passenger”
Last fall, a major pile-up was caused
by a bus slewed across the A9 freeway.
It was blocking all three lanes,
and only the hard shoulder was unobstructed.
Three cars were approaching
at the same time. The vehicle in the
middle lane was “trapped” between
the two vehicles in the right and left
lanes. In this situation, the driver had
no way of avoiding the accident unassisted.
The car crashed into the bus at
almost full speed, and numerous other
vehicles drove into it immediately afterwards.
For a long time, the major car manufacturers
have been seeking solutions
to avoid accidents in such situations.
They are working on technology that
will help the driver to avoid sudden
obstacles – an “avoidance assistance
function”. The idea behind it is that the
vehicle autonomously coordinates the
driving maneuvers performed in extreme
situations. Such an assistance
system is not feasible at present. Its
complexity calls for new approaches
to the structure of vehicle electronics
networks.
The architecture of today’s on-board
networks is characterized by the unity
of functions, control units and sensors.
In other words, each assistance function
is built with its own sensor and its
own control unit. The architecture of tomorrow’s
vehicle electronics networks
will break up these units, significantly
reducing the complexity of future vehicle
network architectures by separating
the functions from the hardware.
Open system architectures of this kind
are being developed in the AUTOSAR
project; they represent the technical
implementation of this requirement.
One very important issue is the way in
which the system passes its information
to the driver. ESG has started to
develop a corresponding communication
management system for cars. The
company’s wealth of know-how in the
aviation sector facilitates the task.
The primary goal of a communication
management system is to avoid
over-taxing the driver by coordinating
the flow of information to the driver
depending on the situation and the
driver’s condition. Single items of information
are linked to form more
meaningful content and presented at
the right moment.
Training as a special event
Last fall, the Oliver Wyman consulting
company published its industry survey
“Car Innovation 2015”. The survey revealed
that many customers feel overwhelmed
by the quantities of complex
and unexplained innovations and the
barrage of brand-specific names and
abbreviations. A test carried out at 50
car dealerships was even more alarming.
The investigation of their ability to
explain innovations revealed inadequate
knowledge about the function and use
of individual technologies, and thus a
lack of interest in selling the innovative
features. “On average today, only one
in six available innovations is actually
sold,” reported the Oliver Wyman consultants
in their survey.
One carmaker that has recognized the
need to change this situation is Adam
Opel GmbH. The Rüsselsheim-based
vehicle manufacturer has set itself an
ambitious goal: Each and every Opel
salesperson should be fully convinced
of the innovations created by the Opel
group and be able to bring them over
to the customer. The idea of the “Opel
innovation tour” was born – a training
tour for Opel sales staff at six different
sites all over Germany. ESG was given
the task of designing and implementing
this novel series of events.
A total of twelve all-day events were
held in six different cities. At each of
these training sessions, Opel grouped
its innovations into four thematic packages,
and workshops were held on
each one of them.
The event was a great success with the
1400 or so salespeople who attended,
says Michael Hatz, head of sales and
service training at Adam Opel GmbH.
In his opinion, the competent training
team from ESG was a great asset. The
team’s “Opel innovation tour” was a
creative and intuitive training concept,
he said, and the car manufacturer was
eminently satisfied with it.
Worldwide access to vehicle data
The Volkswagen group is currently redeveloping
its entire diagnosis software.
ODIS (Off-board Diagnosis Information
System) is the name given to a new
generation of system solutions that will
be utilized in the Volkswagen group’s
service sector around the world. ESG
has developed the diagnosis editing
system – one of the two central pillars
of the new software solution. According
to Volkswagen, ODIS will allow service
technicians to access all systems and
information that are relevant to vehicle
diagnosis. “Repair reliability and customer
satisfaction increase, while garage
and warranty costs decrease.”
In future, the ESG solution will enable
the Volkswagen group to register all
data required by the service points at
source. The system thus represents the
basis for a uniform diagnosis process
throughout the Volkswagen group. The
system provides all the functions that
are needed to create diagnosis information,
and embeds them in the appropriate
working environment.
RFID in the German armed forces
It’s a day like any other in a German
army parachute unit: A paratrooper
is being issued with the equipment to
perform a jump exercise. As he receives
his parachute and the auxiliary equipment,
an alarm message suddenly
appears on the computer: “CAUTION –
parachute system unfit for service”.
What sounded futuristic in the military
environment only a few years ago, is
meanwhile everyday reality: A computer-based
logistics system monitors the
condition of all components in real time
and interactively supports the ground
personnel in all aspects of the service
availability processes.
The novel logistics solution is part of
the gliding parachute system for the
German army special forces. This
system involves a vast number of activities
to ensure operational readiness
at all times. The maintenance, repair,
verification and packing, the storage
of the oxygen, parachute and auxiliary
equipment must be perfectly attuned
to one another. All associated records
of checks carried out, clearance for
use, and issue to paratroopers were
initially to be documented exclusively
on paper. ESG thereupon proposed an
RFID-based logistics solution that not
only fulfills all of the requirements met
by the existing paper documentation,
but moreover takes care of all issues
involved in ensuring long-term smooth
operation. The novel solution was given
the name “Daidalos”. All workstations
involved in the processes at the respective
site are equipped with a computer
on which the Daidalos software is installed.
In this way, changes to the condition
of the parachute system can be
registered and entered into the system
at any location. All data are collected in
a central database at the site and additionally
processed for an electronic
life-cycle file. This makes it possible
to generate a complete history of each
monitored subassembly whenever required.
The condition of the parachute
system is checked on issue to the action
forces – and if a faulty subsystem
is identified, the entire system is automatically
barred from use.
A blueprint for logistics?
MDN pro is the key: This “material planning
network”, a complex IT solution by
ESG, is at the core of the company’s
outsourcing service in the areas of
materials management, warehousing
administration, and the control of shipments
and equipment rotation. The system
has placed ESG firmly on the map
as a lead logistics provider.
MDN pro is currently being used by
ESG in the centralized management
of over 50 decentralized federal warehouses
(BEL) and corresponding MRO
facilities of the Luftwaffe. The company
is also applying its know-how in
the operation of a central warehouse
(ZEBEL), which supplies around 150
civilian companies and military maintenance
facilities involved in the repair
of defense systems and vehicles for
the Joint Support Service of the armed
forces. ESG works in partnership with
the transport and logistics company DB
Schenker. Another prominent project is
the “HIL-Baugruppen-Drehkreuz” (assembly
hub).
Meanwhile, the cooperation between
the Bundeswehr, ESG and DB Schenker
has become synonymous with successful
outsourcing, as well as for a productive
partnership between the public and
private sector – a genuine ‘lighthouse
project’. At the close of the first ZEBEL
project year, the German Federal Audit
Office even noted savings of over onethird
in direct costs compared with
previous operations. Further optimization
has been implemented in ongoing
operations on a continuous basis.
Thus, the two projects “ZEBEL” and
“BEL Lw” could act as a blueprint for the
sub-project “warehousing and distribution”
for the “Logistics Project Outline”
and serve as an important role model.
Abandonment of the contract-specific
consignment of stock, a task unique to
ZEBEL, would mean a considerable setback
in the maintenance process.