GlobalFoundries, Germany

The semiconductor crisis in the automotive industry that followed the Corona pandemic is surely remebered well by many. However, because of these crises, opportunities for change present themselves time and again. Even before the word ‘crisis‘ became relevant in this context, a profound change significantly drove the semiconductur manufacturing of the sector giant GlobalFoundries in Dresden forward: The production of chips in the european plant for european vehicle factories.

Because of its extensive portfolio, its high quality and the local manufacturing, GlobalFoundries Dresden rose to a leading supplier of semiconductor fort he automotice industry within a few years.

With its digital use case ‘Predictive Maintenance’, the company has qualified for the Automotive Lean Production Award, which honours innovative and efficient solutions in production. By using optical and acoustic systems as well as artificial intelligence (AI), the plant in Dresden can improve the quality and reliability of the 100% automated intralogistics in its highly automated production, reduce downtimes and save on maintenance costs.

The digital use case is based on capturing and analysing images and acoustic signals that are recorded by the intralogistics overhead conveyor trolleys during operation. Using intelligent evaluation logic based on a neural network, GlobalFoundries Dresden can check the condition of the overhead conveyor trolleys and recognise deviations at an early stage. This enables the company to act proactively and eliminate potential sources of error before they lead to major problems. The project with the internal name Heimdall was realised with several partners, in particular with Zeiss Digital Innovation for the optical part.

The results of this solution are impressive: the ‘mean time between interrupts’, i.e. the average time between disruptions, has improved by a factor of 2.15. The losses (measured in moves) in process operations caused by broken-down transport trolleys and the resulting jams have been reduced by 62 per cent. In addition, the additional maintenance costs for corrective measures were reduced by around 8,000 hours. All of this led to a return on investment of just four months.

With its digital use case, GlobalFoundries in Dresden impressively demonstrates how predictive maintenance can revolutionise logistics and maintenance. The company uses the possibilities of digitalisation to optimise its processes, generate in-house knowledge and strengthen its competitiveness. Further evolutions, such as linking with structure-borne sound data and extensive use of big data, are already being implemented or are in the concrete planning stage. For this outstanding achievement in structured and successful implementation, GlobalFoundries Dresden receives the Automotive Lean Production Award 2024.

The plant in Dresden is well known for its modern production facilities and its diverse applications in the semiconductor industry. Over the years, it specialized in multiple products, including GPS- and radar chips, audio converters for smartphones, driver chips for OLED displays and electronics for voice recognition systems. To improve safety through the latest technologies, the chips from Dresden will be increasingly utilized in the automotive industry in the future. In addition to its plant in Germany, GF operates further plants in the USA and Singapore, which are also certified for sophisticated automotive solutions.