Core Automation

Services at a glance

Select a service area to jump to more detail further down the page.

Pre-sale Consultancy

Cost-effective engineering solutions with outline engineering at quotation stage to ensure proposals are viable and deliverable.

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Project Management

Structured control of project delivery, drawing on many years of industry experience and knowledge of automotive customer procedures.

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Simultaneous Engineering

Simultaneous engineering support covering feasibility, concept studies and Design for Manufacture (DFM) input on Body in White and other structures.

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Design and Tooling Engineering

Concept and detailed automation and tooling design, including fixturing, tooling and complete automation systems design for efficient assembly.

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Simulation Engineering

Simulation and OLP combining robot and human simulation to validate automation solutions and support offline commissioning.

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Process Engineering

Process design covering bill of process, station process, joining management and utilisation analysis for BIW assembly programmes.

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Factory Layout Engineering

Factory and facility layout planning covering tooling positioning, services, materials flow and part handling for BIW assembly lines.

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How we do it

Experience and customer integration that keeps every project running smoothly, from BIW feasibility through to industrialisation, with minimal demand on your resource.

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Software and tools

Industry standard tools across every discipline, including CATIA V5, AutoCAD, Robcad, Process Simulate, Process Designer, and Microsoft Project, applied to your programme standards.

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Pre-sale Consultancy

We provide pre-sale consultancy for BIW automation, bespoke automation, and advanced manufacturing projects, helping clients shape competitive, deliverable proposals from the outset.

Working in an increasingly cost-focused market, finding solutions that make efficient use of equipment and facilities can provide a competitive edge to solution costs while maintaining a margin. We have a track record of engineering innovative solutions that maximise the use of equipment and facilities to minimise investment costs.

By analysing customer enquiries with a structured approach, our team is able to fully understand customer requirements and project deliverables. This allows us to propose solutions that can offer efficiencies and flexibility.

These proposals are backed up with outline engineering at the quotation stage to ensure the proposal is viable and can be engineered into a working solution on successful award.

Project Management

Structured project management for BIW automation, bespoke automation, and advanced manufacturing programmes, drawing on many years of industry experience and knowledge of automotive customer procedures.

  • Many years of industry experience within our team.
  • Knowledge of many automotive customer operating procedures.
  • Incorporation of existing customer document formats or use of our own management tools.
  • Management of resource and coordination of activities.
  • Communication and liaison between all disciplines of the engineering team.
  • Timing and budget tracking.
  • Project status reporting.
  • Engineering change tracking and liaison.

Simultaneous Engineering

We have successfully participated in and completed many simultaneous engineering projects for various OEMs. Automotive projects include traditional high volume spot welded BIW structures and low volume lightweight mixed material vehicle structures requiring different joining techniques. Outside automotive we apply the same principles to bespoke automation and advanced manufacturing programmes.

For many projects our team has been selected to complete post simultaneous engineering activities up to industrialisation.

  • Interrogation of customer product data to determine bill of process.
  • Concept proposals validated by process, layout, tooling studies, robot studies, and ergonomics.
  • Liaison with product design for design for manufacture with respect to fixturing and joining.
  • Implementation of best practice examples.
  • Creative solutions to best fit project metrics such as investment and manning.
  • Identification of facility requirements and liaison with specialist suppliers.
  • Generation of red book content and tender preparation.

Design and Tooling Engineering

Design engineering is a core skill, with particular depth in BIW assembly tooling, fixtures, and automation systems for vehicle body production, and bespoke automation machines and tooling for advanced manufacturing clients.

  • Proven experience designing all levels of automation equipment.
  • Creative and efficient design solutions.
  • Use of project or customer standardisation to maximise manufacture efficiencies.
  • Knowledge of automotive customer standards and requirements.
  • Implementation of best practices and new technologies.
  • Documentation to support safety and compatibility, such as DFMEA, DRA, and FEA.

Simulation Engineering

Simulation engineering supports BIW automation cell design, robot studies, and offline programming for vehicle assembly and bespoke automation projects.

  • Knowledge of automotive customer standards and requirements.
  • Creative and efficient automation solutions.
  • Integral simulation team working closely with design.
  • OLP capability and on-site commissioning support.
  • Human simulation, ergonomic assessment, and task time simulation.

Tools used

  • Robcad, Siemens.
  • Process Simulate, Siemens.
  • Delmia, Dassault.
  • Human Simulation, Dassault.

Process Engineering

Process engineering for BIW assembly programmes is supported by industry experience and knowledge of automotive customer standards and requirements.

  • Generation and validation of BIW and vehicle assembly processes, identifying resources required.
  • Validation of TAKT time.
  • Utilisation of capital equipment and human resource.
  • Identification of efficiency improvements.

Tools used

  • Excel, Microsoft.
  • Visio, Microsoft.
  • Process Designer, Siemens.

Factory Layout Engineering

Factory layout engineering covers generation and refinement of BIW assembly and advanced manufacturing facility layouts, working with all relevant disciplines.

  • Generation of factory layout.
  • Liaison with tooling, simulation, conveyors, and materials disciplines.
  • Positioning of tooling and facilities.
  • Positioning of materials with stock delivery access.
  • Positioning of services.
  • Virtual factory and complete digital twin facility modelling.
  • Site surveys and reverse engineer scanning of existing facilities.

Tools used

  • AutoCAD, Autodesk.
  • FactoryCAD, Siemens.
  • Dassault tools including Delmia, Catia, and Human Simulation.

How we do it

These principles apply across our BIW automation, bespoke automation, and advanced manufacturing engineering design work:

  • Application of many years of relevant industry experience to provide efficient and innovative engineering solutions.
  • Experience of developing materials and joining techniques.
  • An aim to integrate with our customer team as seamlessly as possible.
  • Knowledge of customer procedures combined with skilled resource, allowing us to operate effectively with minimal input from valuable customer resource.
  • Open and clear communication throughout the process to ensure we fulfil customer requirements.

See how we have applied these services in practice on our engineering projects page.

Find out more about Core Automation, our engineering team and the experience we bring to every project.

Software and tools

We use industry standard tools to deliver design, simulation, process, and layout engineering.

AutoCAD
Autodesk
Catia
Dassault
Siemens
Robcad
Microsoft
Excel
Project
Visio