Jeep Wrangler Supplier Plant Driven by Microsoft
Nov. 27, 2012
Intelligent system built by KUKA Systems Group controls 246 specialized robots that produce more than 700 Jeep Wrangler bodies daily.
Tweet
TOLEDO, Ohio Nov. 27, 2012 With a lineage tracing back more than seven decades, the Jeep Wrangler is one of the most iconic vehicles in the world, and one of the Chrysler Group's best sellers. Just this past May, the Wrangler set its all-time monthly sales record at 14,454 units.
Experiencing the back roads with the top down, drivers would never guess the important role Windows Embedded and other Microsoft technologies play in manufacturing one of the world's coolest modes of travel. Today the production facility in Toledo that produces bodies for the Wrangler is operated by an intelligent system that extends from the back office to the shop floor. The highly automated plant is operated by KUKA Systems Group and produces more than 700 Wrangler bodies each day, in eight different body configurations.
In its Toledo, Ohio plant, Kuka Systems manages an incredibly complex data flowand builds the entire body of a Jeep Wrangler in 82 secondsusing an intelligent system powered by Windows Embedded.
--
According to Jake Ladouceur, managing director of the Toledo facility, the challenge of producing such a well-known vehicle to Chrysler Group's demanding quality control standards was one KUKA Systems embraced from the beginning.
We have been building the Wrangler since 2006, says Ladouceur. The Wrangler is an incredible value offering both on- and off-road capability that just keeps getting better, even after 71 years.
KUKA Systems has long been a pioneer in automated manufacturing. The company created the first industrial robot in 1973, and launched a PC-based controller in 1996 that integrated mechanical devices, software and controllers for the first time. By the time it won the Chrysler contract in 2004, KUKA had installed nearly 80,000 robots worldwide.
For the Toledo plant, KUKA built an intelligent system anchored by Windows Embedded and Microsoft SQL Server that controls the factory's 246 assembly-line robots, along with multiple devices, applications and back-end systems. The robots on the shop floor are connected to 33 controller points, managed by one primary controller on a SQL Server cluster running Windows Server.
In all, those 33 controller points connect with 1,444 nodes capable of interfacing with approximately 60,000 devices on the shop floor, such as welding and sealing equipment.
According to Michael Haag, head of Research and Development at KUKA Robotics Corp., a subsidiary of KUKA Systems, the development tools and APIs available for Windows have played a big part in making such a broad integration effort possible.
With Windows, we have a relatively open system that we can customize to communicate with the other IT systems around it, Haag says. The idea was to use a mainstream technology that was developed for other domains, like the consumer industry, and drive service-oriented technology into the automation world. This is exactly what Windows gives us.
KUKA Robotics designed the architecture so that Windows Embedded and the Windows .NET Compact Framework can run together on one CPU. As a result, the environment supports both the KUKA robot controller and the KUKA control panel, allowing the entire solution to run on a single PC. All the control tasks, including creating and running programs and diagnostic processes, can be performed directly on the robots from the control panel's Windows-based interface.
With such a streamlined management environment, the system is able to adapt quickly to changes in production requirements. And that's a good thing since, on a daily basis, Chrysler communicates its order for Wranglers in eight different configurations left-hand drive or right-hand drive, two-door or four-door, full-door or half-door. With Wranglers selling at an unprecedented pace, Ladouceur says Chrysler is currently ordering about 725 cars per day.
We ship our customer a complete car body every 82 seconds, says Ladouceur. So we don't have time to adjust source code, and we can't introduce something that isn't trusted and proved. Our intelligent system built with Microsoft technology enables us to react very quickly.
The plant operates 20 hours a day, and IT processes run without stop. In addition to processing Chrysler's daily orders, the system also monitors wear and tear on the robots themselves through a Web application developed by KUKA.
We've been operating continuously for more than six years with a system based on Windows Embedded. says Ladouceur. And when we need help, we've always been able to contact Microsoft and get support that's always been a plus.
Given the plant's success, Ladouceur's team might be tempted to take its foot off the gas, but KUKA is constantly looking at ways to improve. On the drawing board is an eventual migration of all the plant's applications into SharePoint.
We'd like to make SharePoint the central hub, so to speak, of reaching the rest of these pages and tools that are available, he says. But thats down the road a bit.
Or in the case of the 700-plus Jeep Wranglers his plant produces each day, down the back road.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Jeep Wrangler Supplier Plant Driven by Microsoft
