MTC’S SOLUTION The MTC working in collaboration with JW Froehlich, Mapel, HSSMI, Horizon Instruments, Fives Landis, Birmingham City University, all guided by JLR begun the PERSEUS project with in-person meetings, facility tours and workshops. At the start of the pandemic the consortia successfully transitioned to virtual conferencing and increased the use of digital platforms; demonstrating the same flexibility needed to deliver a flexible ICE-EV production line. The project aimed to break down every component of the electric drive unit (EDU) and MTC were able to advise on the manufacture and assembly processes including optimisation approaches. An important early phase of the project was the component-specific technology surveys focusing on the EDU. These studies identified equipment, suppliers and enabled cross-consortia knowledge sharing, thereby upskilling all project team members involved. This would later be the starting point for the MTC’s in- depth supply chain mapping study on the state of the UK, EU and international electric vehicle supply chain. The aim of the study was to look at the current capabilities as well as the knowledge gap to be able to build a greater understanding of the automotive sector and place MTC at the forefront to advise on its future. This newly developed knowledge of the UK supply chain, in addition to existing strategic enablement expertise, was shared to create an all-encompassing strategy for JLR to transition to a fully flexible production line. Whilst also developing an understanding of the UK automotive supply chain capability, to increase the knowledge of the consortium.
This supported the significant undertaking by MTC project team, who provided knowledge transfer amongst the consortium, senior leadership teams and the wider workforce to build their understanding of power electronics and e-machines to ensure that they could then engage with the common language required to drive progress on the project. To ensure a transition to EDU production was possible, consortium partners utilised the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) funding stream to develop their equipment and tooling through simulation, prototyping, physical trials, and knowledge transfer. The JLR-led consortia collaboratively reviewed the existing EDU design, highlighted practical issues, identified ICE-EV cross-over points for existing equipment and created solutions for this complex challenge. Threaded throughout the project was an EV supply chain review conducted by the MTC, showing the huge UK manufacturing potential and existing growth opportunities to tap into.
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