Renault Metaverse: how one car maker is digitising its entire production process

Renault is undertaking an audacious programme to digitise its entire production process – from first design sketches to the final car rolling off the forecourt into the clutches of its first owner. 
Most car makers are accelerating their digital programmes, but Renault’s is so advanced that it opened its doors to CAR magazine to showcase what it calls the Renault Metaverse. 

The Renault Metaverse? Aren’t they just jumping on the latest bandwagon? 
You’ve doubtless been watching the travails of Facebook parent Meta, which is spending billions on its Metaverse. Well, Renault’s is here and now and is a way of connecting digital touchpoints across 35 factories worldwide and bringing them to life for the company’s staff to understand the data. It’s catchier than its formal name: the Industrial Data Management Platform 4.0 (IDM4).
So instead of hanging out with your mates and laughing at their avatars, Renault’s Metaverse is about connecting and visualising its data so staff can make better decisions. Or to give a concrete example: supervisors are alerted via their tablet if a robotic welding machine has stuck on a car and can arrange a fix (see alert below) – or track the dispatch of cars to dealerships and alert customers if their new vehicle is delayed.
Renault started work on the programme in 2017 and claims it’s grown into the ‘first industrial metaverse in the world.’ The system uses technology from the gaming industry to bring the data to life for staff, visualising reports and alerts in a more actionable way than a dull spreadsheet ever could. 

What is the purpose of the Renault digital programme?
What is clever about Renault’s data management platform is the interoperability of its datasets. Or in plain English: it is endeavouring to ingest every data point into its system – currently one billion datasets per day, across its own facilities and those of suppliers.
If you’ve ever tried to migrate your iPhone data to a new Android device, or flip your photo archive from one supplier to another, you’ll know how hard data portability can be.
For Renault, which built 2.7 million vehicles last year, it’s a logistical nightmare: every robot, factory, connected object or digital touchpoint belonging to the Renault Group has its own unique ID, allowing it to communicate with the Renault Metaverse.
Today more than 70 percent of the group’s industrial equipment is connected and they’re aiming for 100 percent. It’s truly the internet of lots of things.

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