Renault signs multi-year deal with Google Cloud to accelerate data-led digital transformation

Groupe Renault has signed a multi-year deal with Google Cloud to accelerate the French motoring group’s existing, data-led digital transformation and improve the overall efficiency of its operations.

Like many manufacturing firms, the company has been pursuing a digital strategy for some time now, in support of its efforts to make better use of the data generated across the group’s operations and contribute – in its own words – to the Industry 4.0 movement.

The latter is refers to the push by manufacturers in all sectors to digitally transform their traditional product development and industrial practises by embracing the concept of big data and the adoption of smart technologies throughout their supply chains.

In Groupe Renault’s case, the process has been underway since at least 2016, when it began developing its own in-house data aggregation platform to connect and collect digital information from more than 2,500 machines scattered across 22 of the firm’s global group sites.

The company said it intends to draw on Google’s portfolio of cloud products to optimise and refine this data management platform, while embarking on a new programme of work designed to digitally skill-up Groupe Renault’s in-house staff.

This will include training initiatives aimed at enhancing the technical skills of the firm’s process engineering, manufacturing and IT teams by enabling them to work alongside Google Cloud’s own employees, who will also run additional training and enablement programmes for Groupe Renault’s staff.

“This agreement and the commitment of our IT teams will allow us to accelerate the deployment of our Industry 4.0 plan designed to transform and connect our production sites and logistics processes around the world to improve our standards of excellence and performance,” said José Vicente de los Mozos, Groupe Renault’s director of manufacturing and logistics.

“This partnership is also an asset for Groupe Renault employees who will benefit from high-level training in digital data management.”

According to Bloomberg, the deal is being hailed by Google as the largest of its kind globally, although neither party would be drawn on the exact size of the deal, and will see the tech giant draw data from Renault’s factories and supply chains to improve the efficiency of operations.

This will be made possible by combining this data with Google’s data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to streamline its manufacturing and supply chain processes, while also assisting the motor manufacturer with curbing the size of its carbon footprint and bringing new industry-specific products and services of its own to market.

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said the tech firm’s partnership with Groupe Renault will play an important role in helping to “revolutionise” the process of automotive manufacturing.

“The automotive industry has innovation in its DNA, and there is immense potential for digital technology to have a significant impact on production,” he added.

News of the Groupe Renault deal comes several days after Google Cloud confirmed it is on the cusp of signing a multi-year deal with Deutsche Bank, geared towards transforming its legacy systems and supporting the firm with rolling out new customer-facing services to its clients.