All-in approach for colour management in the automotive industry

 
Not only the colour itself but the perceived colour harmony around the whole automobile is one of the key decision-making criteria when consumers select a new car. To success in this task as effectively and efficiently as possible, we present a combination of digital tools to optimize the monitoring of the sprayed color in automotive paintlines. Our holistic approach goes from the selection of the colour reference or "master panel" to feasible color improvements based on the real-time customer feedback and trend analysis. For the use case of coloured add-on-parts, we show how to predict the colour harmony on the complete car as well. We propose software solutions prepared for smart factories using high volume of data and cloud services. The presented approach allows real-time access to automated measurements performed on the paintline as well as manual measurements. We present an easy way to connect colour measurements with additional measured surface data like appearance or film thickness. All data are available for detailed analysis and additionally the results can be analyzed through the minimum number of key performance indicators required.