BMW

Sepura Provides Solution For BMW

Challenge

The plant in Dingolfing had a variety of analogue radio systems for different departments, most of them were out of date and service. They needed to be replaced by a single digital communication system for all users. The automatic fault notification system in the plant's production line also needed replacing and improving to improve efficiency.

Solution

Sepura provided an entirely automatic fault notification solution which unifies Voice and Data and improves efficiency within the manufacturing plant. Whenever a fault occurs on the production line, the maintenance team receives an automatic message SDS (Short Data Service) on their TETRA terminals directly from a server.

Benefits

The solution provided reliable, clear communications for staff, with talkgroups enabling teams to receive targeted instructions. These instructions helped to increase responsiveness when addressing maintenance repairs, reducing lost output and revenue on the production line.

Background

BMW’s manufacturing plant in Dingolfing, Germany, is BMW’s largest production site. The plant produces the BMW 5, 6 and 7 Series. The plant needed to:

  • Introduce a secure and reliable communication system where all relevant teams can use voice and data at all times and without any network reception interruption.
  • Overcome areas of poor reception and receive clear audio in areas of loud ambient noise.
  • Communicate with mobile and exchange phones.
  • Provide emergency alert for lone workers.
  • React quickly to any emergency.

The plant in Dingolfing is BMW’s largest production site

side profile of navy BMW car

Answering the needs of industry

Sepura designs, develops and supplies TETRA digital hand-portable radios for use by personnel on foot and mobile radios for installation in vehicles, such as cranes and fork lift trucks. Around the world, Sepura’s radios are used by manufacturing plants to help businesses operate more efficiently, with clear and flexible communications.

The solution

The solution is part of a complete digital mobile communication system operating on a TETRA network supplied by a regional TETRA infrastructure provider. The digital communications system covers the whole area of the manufacturing plant, including all the office buildings and all the connecting roads.

Sepura provided an entirely automatic fault notification solution which unifies Voice and Data and improves efficiency within the manufacturing plant. Whenever a fault occurs on the production line, the maintenance team receives an automatic message SDS (Short Data Service) on their TETRA terminals directly from a server.

This SDS is generated with predefined text. The text is sent to the TETRA radios of the relevant maintenance team, where one team member has to accept the job manually. If no team representative is able to accept, the system resends the SDS up to three times, after which the request is escalated to a supervisor who then makes the final decision with regards to job allocation. If more than one operative accepts the repair job, only one of them will be automatically selected to receive instructions to attend the fault.

Sepura provided an SDA (Short Data Application) which considerably simplifies the reading and acceptance of the jobs by reducing to a minimum the number of interactions needed to accept or reject a maintenance job. All messages within the system are generated automatically with a single selection of a field within the SDA message. The SDA works with a server but, in the event of server failure, the backup system is able to deliver the messages seamlessly.

The solution proposed by Sepura was selected by BMW as it was able to meet the following requirements:
– Automatically display of fault messages.
– Job acceptance in less than three key presses.
– Automatic registration of job acceptance on the server.
– Confirmation sent to user upon job allocation.
– Ability to operate with a redundant system and to switch seamlessly between systems.

The benefits

The solution provided reliable, uninterrupted reception and swift communications help save time and money. When maintenance repairs to a production line are quickly addressed a manufacturing plant saves on lost output and revenue.

Talk groups enable staff to handle tasks with clear and reliable communications. Staff can belong to a variety of talk groups at the same time and can be contacted at once with instructions and information relevant to the specific group.

Talk groups can include staff working on the same production line in a factory, crane operators in shipyards or workers in a specific section of a container port.

GPS tracking enables the effective deployment of the workforce which can often be widely spread over large areas and makes the organisations more responsive.

Delivering worldwide

Want to learn more about Sepura’s solutions? Get in touch.

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