Commissioning AGV Solution at Porsche

Commissioning AGV Solution for Industrial Manufacturing

Project owner:	Porsche AG, Zuffenhausen, Germany
Project industry:	Industrial Manufacturing, Automation & Control Systems
Project services:	Project Design Services, Project Development Services, Project Commissioning Services
Project completion:	2020
Project duration:	18 months

Disclaimer

The Experiences presented below were undertaken by the founders and partners of Waste2Value in their individual professional capacities, prior to the formation of the company. Waste2Value was not directly contracted or engaged to deliver these assignments. These Experiences are shared to illustrate the depth of in-house expertise we bring to our clients and to highlight the quality, rigour, and impact that underpin our approach to every engagement.

Case

Stuttgart, located in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg, is internationally recognized as the cradle of high-performance automotive engineering. It is home to world-renowned sports car manufacturers such as Porsche and Mercedes-AMG. The region hosts an ecosystem of precision automotive suppliers and manufacturers that specialise in developing advanced technologies and solutions specifically tailored to the demands of manufacturers in this category—focusing entirely on the elite standards of performance, design, and manufacturing that define the sports car segment.

Unlike manufacturers of commercial vehicles, sports car producers operate in a fundamentally different space. No one needs a sports car—these are luxury products that serve as symbols of passion & pride. Their value is not derived from their cost, but from the desire to own one. Manufacturers of such sports cars understand this distinction, and channel it into every part of their operation. Their commitment to delivering perfection—across design, materials, performance, and user experience—is not an option but a strategic imperative. By continually raising the bar on what is considered technically and aesthetically possible, they ensure their place at the top of the market.

This pursuit of excellence does not end at internal development. It extends outward to every supplier and solution provider involved in their ecosystem. Suppliers must understand that they are not just delivering components or systems—they are contributing to a brand and product that stands for engineering superiority. High expectations, relentless attention to detail, and zero tolerance for mediocrity are part of the engagement. Any vendor working with such clients must align not only in capability, but in mindset, embracing the same culture of precision and performance before stepping into such partnerships.

In line with this commitment to innovation and excellence, Porsche inaugurated a state-of-the-art engine plant in 2016 at its Zuffenhausen headquarters, called Porsche Werk 4. Representing an investment of nearly €80 million, the facility was designed to become the brand new home for engine production at the Zuffenhausen site; capable of producing approximately 200 V8 engines daily. Only about a year after its completion, with the rising popularity of electric vehicles, Porsche decided to expand the use of the facility to include the production of its new electric drivetrains. They began this effort by installing a test production line to explore the feasibility of fully automating the assembly of electric drivetrains using only robotic systems, developed in preparation for ramping up production ahead of the Taycan model's launch in 2019.

Objectives

The Werk 4 facility marked a major milestone in Porsche’s pursuit of full automation in electric drivetrain manufacturing. As part of this initiative, the test production line was equipped with four fully automated test benches capable of executing EOL (End-of-Line) performance testing on electric drivetrains. Porsche opted to include a custom AGV solution, as part of their order for the automatic test benches. The AGVs required to be compact vehicles designed to carry electric drivetrains directly into the test benches and hand them over to the cells for testing. The same level of precision was required for retrieving the tested electric drivetrains from the opposite side of the test benches, ensuring flawless handovers in both directions. This choreography demanded extreme accuracy—not only in the AGVs’ navigation and positioning to less than 1 cm error margin, but also in aligning the payload trays with the test benches to a tolerance of no more than 1 mm in all 3-axis, enabling safe and repeatable push-pull transfer of the electric drivetrains. The project objective was to commission an AGV solution capable of extreme engineering precision in driving, lifting, and in-place pivoting, powered by batteries supporting high-amperage charging to reduce vehicle downtime to only four minutes per discharge cycle.

A fleet of about 30 vehicles (initially only 10 plus 1 reserve vehicle) were to transport all electric drivetrains through a series of 22 fully and semi-automated stations, including four parallel EOL test benches, situated in a tight area of approximately 45 meters by 12 meters. The system was meant to be operational across three production shifts running continuously over a 24-hour period, meeting total system availability of not less than 99%.

Commissioning a complex solution as part of our Systems Engineering services in an industrial manufacturing environment demands not only extensive technical expertise but also a substantial set of soft skills to bridge gaps between stakeholders, specialists, and suppliers.

Solution

Commissioning a complex solution as part of our Systems Engineering services in an industrial manufacturing environment—especially one requiring such levels of precision and quality—demands not only extensive technical expertise but also a substantial set of soft skills to bridge gaps between stakeholders, specialists, and suppliers. The solution consisted not only of a highly customised supervisory fleet management software and embedded vehicle software, but also a comprehensive hardware layer required to support AGV operation. This included high-speed DC chargers, remote I/O boxes, radio data transmitters, and of course the AGVs themselves. Each vehicle was a system of systems—composed of components from approximately 12 different suppliers, ranging from battery modules and power electronics to obstacle detection scanners and embedded control units.

To manage the complexity, the overall solution was structured into four key domains:

AGV Vehicles: These required substantial hardware/software integration to achieve full operational readiness and meet stringent precision requirements.
Supervisory Fleet Management Software: Identical to most industrial-grade systems, the supervisory software demanded a significant layer of customization to ensure seamless interoperability with the site's existing production management systems.
Support Hardware: This encompassed fast DC chargers, radio communication units, remote I/O enclosures, maintenance lifting equipment, and custom payload adapters for the automated loading and unloading of electric drivetrains.
Middleware Software: This is a suite of dedicated applications designed to securely reformat, transmit, and receive real-time data between the AGV solution and the various endpoint systems operating within the production facility.

On the project owner side, we faced an even greater diversity of suppliers and technical teams. Every device or subsystem the AGV solution interfaced with was delivered by a different specialist vendor—hardware ranging from overhead cranes to ESD floor coatings, and software applications ranging from management of factory production shift hours to management of fire alarms at the building—the list of systems goes on and on. In addition, the project owner’s internal teams—such as maintenance, production, safety, power, logistics, IT and many others—each had a stake in the commissioning process. This wide network of stakeholders had to be carefully coordinated, as every one of them interacted directly or indirectly with the deployed AGV solution.

Our Systems Engineering expertise provide the structure and clarity needed to bring together people, processes, and systems into one coherent, functional solution.

The only effective way to manage this extensive list of stakeholders and interface complexities was by broadly aligning our approach with best-practice Systems Engineering methodologies, as outlined by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE):

Identify full scope of system context
Identify full list of direct and indirect stakeholders
Define all stakeholder requirements and system requirements
Define system models for architecture, data, functions, and behaviour
Define all system interfaces with its context, including how sub-systems interface with each other
Structure agile work packages with all required technical documentation specific to each team
Supervise and coordinate build activities on daily basis
Define test plans for each work package delivery
Execute verification test plans at all sub-system levels
Perform sub-system integration
Execute validation test plans at system level
Execute system qualification and acceptance tests ready for sign-off.

That is the true expectation of Wate2Value Eco clients—peace of mind, knowing that despite all challenges and complexities, our Systems Engineering expertise provide the structure and clarity needed to bring together people, processes, and systems into one coherent, functional solution.

Results

Enabled integration of an AGV solution capable of operating autonomously across highly constrained production areas with extreme precision in navigation and payload alignment.
Established seamless data exchange between fleet management, middleware applications, and existing production IT systems with zero interface conflicts.
Enabled 24/7 operation across three continuous shifts, minimizing unplanned downtime and maximizing operational throughput.
Aligned system behaviour with all stakeholder requirements through structured verification, validation, and qualification test protocols.
Coordinated a complex multi-supplier delivery chain while maintaining clear systems ownership, traceability, and control throughout all phases.
Achieved a recorded system availability of 99.86% during final acceptance testing, and added one more satisfied customer reassured by Wate2Value Eco’s proven ability to translate systems, suppliers, and processes into one single functioning solution.