Stellantis hosted the 2026 Factory Booster Day on October 21, selecting more than 80 suppliers and startups to present solutions to problems submitted by its own plants. The automaker says the selected work spans AI, advanced robotics and vision systems, along with automation, energy intelligence and digital manufacturing.
Plant teams at 63 sites across all regions submitted challenges. More than 280 suppliers and startups responded with proposals. Stellantis runs the matching through its Open Challenge process, which has operated since the event began in 2016. Projects that succeed are prepared for rollout across other Stellantis plants, and the company ties the program to its FaSTLAne 2030 strategic plan.
Francesco Ciancia, Chief Manufacturing Officer at Stellantis, said the company starts from real plant challenges and focuses on solutions that "can be deployed at scale."
The release points to three earlier projects as examples. At the Zaragoza plant in Spain, ZEISS introduced fixtureless geometry measurement for stamped parts, which eliminates dedicated checking fixtures. Stellantis says the approach adds inspection flexibility at a low implementation cost. For quality engineers, the appeal is inspection that no longer depends on a dedicated fixture.
At the Sterling Stamping plant in Michigan, ThinkDigits, a Michigan-based industrial AI company, installed real-time monitoring of blank draw-in. The system flags stamping deviations earlier and tightens process control. Stellantis says annual savings reached nearly four times the initial investment, and the project is expanding to additional production lines.
This year's agenda added Beyond the Booths, a series of sessions in which Stellantis leaders discussed manufacturing priorities, and the Innovation Global Awards, which recognized employee and plant contributions. A third past project came from Uptale, which built immersive training modules and virtual production-line tours for the Sochaux plant in France to replace paper-based instruction.
