Tier-One Auto Supplier to Toyota Motor Corp. Streamlines Processes Using XVL

XVL Customer Story: Toyoda Iron Works

 

Corporate Profile

Toyoda Iron Works Co. Ltd. (TIW) is a tier-one Japanese auto parts supplier founded in 1946. TIW is headquartered in Toyota City and manufactures auto parts in three plants in Japan and 10 plants overseas. Their main products are steel plate body frame components and chassis parts. Seventy-five percent of their production is for Toyota Motor Corporation.

Evolution of 3D Data Utilization at Toyoda Iron Works

TIW started the transition from 2D to 3D (CATIA) in the 2000s. The transition was not easy. Several years later, 3D CAD and CAE had been rolled out to limited departments. During that time, there were no company-wide standards for CAD/CAE usage. Even though some departments were using 3D, lack of company-wide standards resulted in a lot of unnecessary rework in the late stages of design and production planning.

At the same time, Toyota Motor Corporation launched a "3D as the Master" initiative which included providing 3D data to suppliers like TIW. This triggered TIW to launch the Digital and Simultaneous Engineering Initiative.

The overall objective of the “D-SE Initiative” was to create a complete work environment centered on the 3D model and related data that enabled the Digital Engineering (DE) environment and to promote utilization of DE processes for design, Simultaneous Engineering (SE) and production planning. The initial goals were to:

  1. Eliminate design rework
  2. Reduce costs due to rework by 80%
  3. Reduce the overall lead time from development to production readiness.

The D-SE Initiative resulted in several projects. For example, the production management division used XVL to improve the efficiency of product packaging.

Making 3D the Master

300x600 combined quotesBefore the D-SE Initiative, TIW converted their 3D CAD data to 2D TIFF format to be shared with other departments. Now they convert the 3D CAD data to 3D XVL and store it in their PDM system.

Other departments can now retrieve the lightweight 3D XVL data directly from the PDM system and use it to improve their own business processes. TIW is also sharing the XVL data with their own trusted suppliers, enabling more efficient supplier communication.

Using XVL for leveraging 3D data is much easier than using 3D CAD. The main reasons are XVL’s ultralight format that retains CAD-level accuracy and being CAD-agnostic. Most often complete products are segmented into many CAD models for size or working convenience. With XVL, all of the CAD models can be brought together. Even different CAD formats that might have been gigabyte-sized files can be brought together into a single XVL file. These consolidated XVL files can then be managed by XVL Contents Manager for version control to downstream functions. 

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