At Volkswagen Group, digital manufacturing is being rolled out on a global scale and the carmaker has recently pledged to invest $1 billion in digitalisation across its North American production network between now and 2025, the latest stage in a global transformation of its manufacturing process first announced with Amazon Web Services and Siemens in 2019.

Cloud-based industrial software, new intelligent robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are set to be rolled out in factories across the region.

Johan de Nysschen, chief operating officer at VW Group of America, said digital technology will inevitably reshape the future landscape for manufacturing. With North America as part of the eventual global digital network, the strategy is to not just digitalise core products but apply digital technology throughout the manufacturing process, including in production, design and development, as well as in supporting in-plant logistics.