The transportation industry is at an inflection point as manufacturers shift from the traditional internal combustion engines based to electric vehicles. Incumbent OEMs, such as Hyundai, have the challenge of transferring their production lines over to new types of vehicles.
One method of achieving this objective is tasking innovation centers to validate solutions before adoption on the production line. Technology suppliers must work closely with all stakeholders to precisely match their technology with a production line’s needs. TeamViewer’s work with Hyundai is one such example.
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More Than an Innovation Partnership
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NEWS
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TeamViewer announced at the end of September 2022 that the firm is partnering with automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company, in particular the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS). The partnership involves utilizing TeamViewer’s Augmented Reality (AR) platform and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities to help HMGICS develop a smart manufacturing platform.
Often technology suppliers can be mistaken that their solutions will be well received by customers and immediately rolled out across their facilities. Manufacturers, however, are cautious about the potential for new technologies to adversely affect the production line. In the case of TeamViewer and Hyundai, both parties will be collaborating to encourage the roll out of the platform on a global basis. Initially, the partnership will focus on data that supports the production lines to improve productivity as well as ensure worker safety; both high priorities for plant managers.
Slotting into HMGICS' Remit
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IMPACT
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Hyundai Motor Company employs more than 120,000 individuals and is present in over 200 countries. HMGICS is the company’s test bed and a global open innovation hub, and its remit includes establishing partnerships, developing the company’s smart manufacturing platform, mobility products, and business model for Electric Vehicles (EVs).
TeamViewer today has around 620,000 subscribers that company helps to digitalize business-critical processes through seamless connectivity and continuously looks to provide software that supports AR, Internet of Things (IoT), and AI use cases. Since being founded in 2005, TeamViewer’s software has been installed on more than 2.5 billion devices.
Manufacturers establish centralized innovation hubs to provide a dedicated resource for evaluating technologies, capture the nuances of individual manufacturing facilities, and avoid those individual manufacturing facilities duplicating efforts. The two companies will conduct joint research and development (R&D) projects looking into how AR can underpin smart factory operations, deliver of immersive digital experiences to support frontline workers, and apply AI to increase productivity. The smart manufacturing platform will support training new employees on the factory floor as well as ensuring assembly, maintenance, and quality management tasks are performed correctly. EV production will require changes to production processes and changes to quality management programs.
AR solutions such as TeamViewer Frontline can help manufacturers optimize manual work processes on the factory floor. One of the objectives of this partnership for TeamViewer is to position the firm as an enterprise software provider that can provide specialized solutions to the manufacturing industry and support digital transformation programs overall. For Hyundai, the partnership supports the company’s overall goals of producing zero emission vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells, central EV technologies.
Partnerships are Key Component of TeamViewer's Strategy
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RECOMMENDATIONS
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Hyundai is already challenging the US headquartered automakers in their home market, especially with respect to EVs. The company announced in May 2022 its plans for a dedicated EV production facility in the US state of Georgia, costing in the region of the US$5.5 billion. At the time of writing, construction is set to commence in early 2023. The partnership with TeamViewer can help Hyundai continue the progress that the company has made in the US automotive market. Furthermore, when creating production lines at greenfield facilities companies can deploy cutting edge technologies such as those from TeamViewer straightaway.
The challenge for both HMGICS and TeamViewer is getting Hyundai’s other manufacturing plants to adopt the smart manufacturing platform. For the AR based solutions to be introduced and successfully implemented across Hyundai’s manufacturing plants, the two organizations must collaborate with factory teams with responsibility for change management and the introduction of new technologies on to the production lines. TeamViewer can point to the partnership with Mercedes-AMG Petronas (IN-6311) as an example of the firm’s technology successfully supporting a high profile automotive firm. Several automotive customers, especially in the upstream and downstream operations of the automotive value chain, including Ford Motor Company, BMW North America, Toyota Germany, and DB Schenker are prime examples as well. However, Hyundai will come with its own combination of scale and complexity.
2022 is a year of technology partnerships for TeamViewer. The company recently announced (July 2022) a partnership with Siemens Digital Industries Software where TeamViewer’s Frontline is available as a module in Siemens’ Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution Teamcenter software. The immersive experiences afforded by the Frontline solution enable designers to collaborate using 3D representations of products that are connected to a digital twin of the product. Earlier this month, TeamViewer announced that Frontline will be available via Google Cloud Marketplace. While accessing and working the Frontline software, manufacturers can look to improve productivity thanks to instructions being relayed to users’ Glass Enterprise Edition 2 smart glasses.
The above partnerships still position TeamViewer as a provider of AR-based solutions. Successfully working alongside the innovation center of a major automobile manufacturer like Hyundai as the firm moves to the production of EVs will help TeamViewer to move up the value chain and be considered a strategic partner.
