[rst89]

Disclaimer: I am an ex Hyundai Mobis employee and views explained over here are mine and not officially related to company.

Most of the people and even Team-BHP have visited the Hyundai Motors main factory but very few or none have visited its sister sibling factory Hyundai Mobis. The Hyundai Mobis factory is just adjacent to Hyundai Motors main plant. Below google maps image shows exact location of factory.



Company profile about Hyundai Mobis can be found in below link
About Hyundai Mobis

The factory visit to Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Motors main plant made me realise how tough job it is to be on factory floor and how easily I sip green Tea and eat snacks in the office cafeteria much to the chagrin of Korean higher management. Most of the Korean higher management comes to lead the software groups after working on factory floor and can't digest the fact of an employee taking long breaks for lunch and tea time. Anyways that's a different topic and I will not concentrate on it.

There are many plants of Hyundai Mobis around the world and wherever we have a Hyundai Motors or Kia plant, there has to be a Hyundai Mobis plant nearby.
The Chennai plant handles five main responsibilities. We will go one be one. Sadly there are no photos as we were not allowed to take any of them.
But I will try to give you a vivid picture of what goes on inside the factory. Some images are taken from Hyundai Mobis website for representation purposes.

1. Airbag assembly unit

At the hyundai Mobis plant, four main type of airbags were getting assembled, the front driver airbag, the passenger airbag, side airbag and curtain airbag. Below picture gives you an idea of the placement of the airbags and some more information which I will elaborate more on.



In the plant, basically hand assembly of airbags goes on with some aid taken of machines. For example, the front driver airbag needs to be packed in the steering wheel. The packaging in the compartment of steering wheel is done with help of machines but in case of curtain airbags, it is hand rolled like a cigar. The cloth or the material with which the airbag is made is imported from China and is not locally made. When the airbag inflates during the crash, there should be side vents on the bag so that the gases escape out and not harm you. But there will still be a burning sensation. The chemical composition in inflator calls for a different thread.

Anyways, the inflator used in Hyundai Mobis airbags comes from Japanese company named as Diacel Corporation. Below link gives good information about Diacel inflators.
Daicel Inflators

Now given curtain airbags have more area to cover when inflated, an elongated and more bigger inflator was used. Also there was no recall of Hyundai cars as they didn't use the Takata made inflators. In general, Koreans resent Japanese a lot as Japanese occupied Korean peninsula for a brief period of time. They destroyed the Korean culture and comfort women issue still pains them a lot. History buffs here on this forum are more aware about it. They try to make their own products instead of relying on others and in this case, Hyundai using a Japanese companies product was a little bit surprising but nevertheless in corporate domain these things should not matter a lot as in the end it is the product that matters.

On the assembly line, there were giant screens showing what happens when the car is without airbag and how grievous injury does it cause to body along with videos of how airbags saves lives when your car impacts a wall or other car. The video on screen played repetitively like music on airports. May be it was a psychological trick to be used on the assembly line workers to do work properly. They also have daily targets to complete.

The ECU(Electronic control unit) of airbag are assembled in some different plant of Mobis which I am unaware of the same and I don't know it's position in Hyundai cars.

Some information about software in airbag units. Generally a lawyer sits when requirement elicitation goes on for airbag projects as different countries have different rules. Let me give a simple example: Shall there should be a button to turn OFF/ON passenger airbag? This is a specific case when a child sits in front seat. Now in USA, cars don't have this button as legislation requires that there should be an occupation classification system for passengers. So how do you manage it? Using a simple sensor placed below seat to measure weight of passenger. I doubt cars in USA have a manual ON/OFF button but I can be corrected. I have no clue how Indian legislation deals with it. We just display some instructions on vanity mirror which is of no use from safety point of view.

One more interesting point should you be buckled up when a crash occurs and airbag gets successfully deployed. For this requirement, seat belt buckled up information should be sent to Airbag ECU. Again I am not aware how Indian legislation addresses this issue which results in long discussion on forums why airbags didn't get deployed!

Airbags ECU have big capacitors on them in case crash happens and 12V power supply to ECU gets snapped. The capacitors should power the ECU so that airbags gets inflated and data is written in non volatile memory at the time of crash.

2. Cockpit module

Some information from the website

It provides equipment for convenience, driving information, control systems, and directly protects the passengers’ safety.
It is an assembled module unit designed to combine multiple parts; including an instrument panel, a cowl cross bar, an air-conditioning system and airbags into a single package to provide CBU (completely built unit) production lines.
Concurrent designing, development and assembly of multiple parts contribute to reducing the number of auto parts by combining them, lowering product weight, increasing productivity and enhancing the quality.

Below picture gives a good idea of what goes in making the module:



At the start of the assembly line is barcoding printing machine where the demand coming from main Hyundai factory is placed and barcode is printed. The steps followed are as follows:

a) First, the wiring harness and HVAC system are picked up from holding compartments and are matched with the bar code received from Hyundai Motors factory. The wiring harness and HVAC are assembled and joined using manual labour on the assembly line.

b) The cowl cross bars of all models are places in different storing compartments and depending upon the barcode printed at the start of assembly line, an appropriate cowl cross bar is picked up for a model, say Creta. Then an appropriate instrument panel is picked up from one more compartment. Without bar code match, you can't just pick up any instrument panel and attach it to any any cowl cross bar. It ultimately is then joined with wiring harness and HVAC system.

c) The instrument panel is attached with Centre facia and air vent. Finally the glove box gets attached to the panel. Everything is checked for bar code match and assembled using manual labour.

d) The defroster and duct system is then placed over the instrument panel

e) Finally steering wheel is attached to the panel along with the column.

All workers on assembly line are colour coded and their names are displayed on a TV in front of assembly line. The ones with green T-shirt are experienced ones and can work across any part of assembly line. While the ones with yellow T-shirt are the ones who can work on only one part of assembly line. The ones wearing red T shirt are quality check guys. Good that software sector doesn't have such type of thing.

The cockpit assembly line is where I spent more time with the supervisor of the workers and he explained me some things by stopping wire harness on assembly line. This irritated the assembly line workers who complained that their targets will get disturbed.

Like main Hyundai plant, on same assembly line, LHD and RHD cockpit modules are assembled without a fuss.

The cockpit module is then packed, loaded in trucks and sent to main plant.

3. Front end module (FEM) and Chassis module

On the above two assembly lines, I spent less time as lunch time had got started. We were told to wait as we would be served after the plant employees have eaten food. The lunch break was only for half hour and the assembly line started moving after the buzzer and the plant workers came running to take their places on the line.

Some information about Front end module

This is a product unit to provide CBU makers with integrated parts placed in the front of the engine compartment including the radiator, headlamps, bumper beam, carrier and AAF (Active Air Flap).
It contributes to parts integration, increased productivity and enhanced quality.
We have been conducting research for improvement of Pedestrian safety and low speed collision safety, upgrading aerodynamics, integration of electronic parts, and reducing weight by applying new materials.

Some information about Chassis module

This is a part unit to benefit automakers by integrating the relevant parts among the ones comprising the framework of the lower part the vehicle.
It enables maximization of productivity and quality improvement.
We conduct research of core technologies for publication of parts and platforms of automakers by developing optimal modules.

Sadly we don't assemble high end Hyundai cars here and I wasn't able to see air suspension system for which I used to write software in Hyundai Mobis. Both FEM and chassis are lifted using conveyor belts and placed in trucks to be transported to Hyundai Motors plant.


4. Audio system and AVN assembly plant

The PCB manufacturing process was a dominant part of Audio and AVN assembly line. For visiting this assembly plant, we had to wear proper suits and had to pass through compartments that removed dust and dirt lying on us by blowing hot air.

Generally the PCB manufacturing process is more or less same for most companies. Below is YouTube link of Saturn Electronics Corp. A similar process is followed at Mobis.

PCB Manufacturing

One thing different was the main chips are programmed separately and then placed on assembly line instead of doing end of line coding.

After the PCB boards are prepared, they are placed in casing of Audio system and then the front part of audio system is attached on assembly line. Then the wiring connectors are attached. QC is performed periodically and in the end some test cases are run automatically to test the audio and AVN assembly and packaged to be sent further.

5. Warehouse

There are two warehouses of Mobis in Chennai area and this warehouse was just adjacent to our plant. It was quite huge. All trivial things like even a rubber bush are marked and kept in particular position in the warehouse. For example, Hyundai Mobis doesn't manufacture the rubber bush but some supplier manufactures them in SIPCOT area and then after QC checks done by Hyundai Mobis, they are packed and given the branding of Hyundai Mobis. This was the hottest part of the plant and we were waiting to rush back main conference room allowed to us after warehouse visit in calm confinements of air conditioner.

With this we end the tour of the small but important Hyundai Mobis plant.

Hyundai Motors main plant visit

I visited even the Hyundai Motors main plant. There is a Team BHP thread on Hyundai Motors factory visit. Link is Team BHP Hyundai Factory Visit @DerAlte has compiled this thread beautifully and I will be using this thread to refer things to add some description already added by him.

We made visit to Plant 2 which manufactures Xcent, Grand i10, Verna and Creta.
At the panel welding shop is was sheer pleasure seeing robots work. The robots are made by sister company of Hyundai named as Hyundai Robotics and in the end money flows in Hyundai group just like Tatas.
Hyundai Rotem also plays an important role in press shop where pressing of sheet metals is done. Hyundai Rotem is same company which supplies coaches to Delhi and Hyderabad metro.

When we visited the panel welding shop, one robot stopped working and the whole line started buzzing with sirens. Finally some plant personals came running and fixed the robots by opening cage where they were confined. The target for today was displayed on big LCD screens throughout the plant.

The best part was at the end of assembly line when a new born car is cranked. The feeling of it getting cranked is surreal! Visiting the main plant was lifetime experience for me.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Technical Section. Thanks for sharing!