Hexagon and SEAT S.A. partner in digital transformation.

Hexagon, a world leader in digital reality solutions that combine sensors, software and autonomous technologies, has expanded its collaboration with the automotive manufacturer SEAT S.A.

The deal builds upon a 25-year partnership working with Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division.

The companies have signed a strategic agreement that aims to deepen the digital transformation of SEAT S.A, focusing on the digitalisation of vehicle components, the management of digitised information and advanced process simulation.

This agreement will enable SEAT S.A. to optimise production and make decisions on process adjustments in real-time.

Hexagon has successfully implemented SEAT S.A.’s measurement and quality control systems.

Through the extended collaboration, the team will integrate a digital twin that applies metrology data with process simulations to predict outcomes and improve efficiency.

The solution will use systems to digitise the car body and its components, manage their data and provide reports and analytics to drive efficiency and reduce costs.

The collaboration is based on three fundamental pillars: the digitalisation of the vehicle’s manufactured parts, the management of digitised information and the simulation of processes.

Under the new agreement, Hexagon’s PRESTO system will fully automate the high-precision 3D laser scanning of the entire body with high-speed robotic inspection.

The second pillar is managing digitised information, which uses Hexagon’s eMMA data management, quality planning and analytics platform.

This automatically captures metrology data and manages it in a standardised way.

The centralisation of all 3D measurement data captured during the digitalisation process facilitates informed and efficient decision-making, allowing SEAT S.A.’s production and quality managers to monitor the condition of the parts and optimise quality in all assembly phases.

The third key aspect is process simulation, which allows SEAT S.A.’s quality analysts to accurately predict problems and optimise critical vehicle manufacturing processes such as part alignment, assembly and subsequent welding operations.

Thanks to Hexagon’s simulation solutions, SEAT S.A. can optimise production and adjust the production settings using a virtual prototype of the product, speeding up the process of fine-tuning production methods used in series manufacturing.

This capability translates into a significant reduction in costs, a reduction in material waste, and an improvement in time-to-market for the new vehicle models.

Josh Weiss, president of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, says: “We're committed to helping SEAT S.A. stay at the forefront of the automotive industry by implementing innovative digital processes that transform agility in manufacturing and take control of quality from the start.

By combining technologies such as automated quality inspection, connected quality workflows and virtual manufacturing, SEAT S.A. can supervise each production stage with significant savings in time, material waste and costs”.

Daniel Cortina, Director of Quality at SEAT says: “At SEAT we are at a time of unprecedented transformation for our company towards smarter, more connected and efficient production, which involves the digital transformation of our production processes.

Now, we'll acquire data about the quality of our parts faster and more accurately, and will also be able to improve manufacturing performance with them.

This predictive approach to quality allows us to improve our customer satisfaction and significantly reduce the materials used in the manufacturing process, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability.”