Challenge
Our customer's production has a large variety of products (over 100 different variants), and many of them are produced in "small batches". This circumstance presents the customer with a number of challenges:
- Limited possibility to invest in additional workstations due to limited space in the production hall. Changeovers must be made very quickly in order to assemble different product variants efficiently and economically.
- Paper-based work instructions are only available for products above a certain level of complexity. The other products are assembled with the help of technical drawings.
- Due to the complex processes, elaborate quality controls have to be carried out to ensure that the required quality can be achieved.
- Elaborate "on-boarding processes" for new employees until the assemblers can do their work independently.
- High manual documentation effort to ensure the complete traceability of the products.
Solution in the Shop floor
By using 10 standardized Smart Factory Assembly workstations, the company was able to reduce setup time costs by an estimated 50%. This resulted in a more efficient use of production space. Additionally, digital work instructions can be easily created using flowcharts or visualizations, regardless of product complexity. The interactive step-by-step instructions help to prevent and, if necessary, correct errors already during assembly. As a result, rework could be reduced. Our solution enables new employees to start assembling immediately, without the need for extensive training.
Outcome
The new Smart Factory Assembly System enables our customer to achieve the following results:
- Maximum flexibility in the workplace: a quick adaptation to changing production requirements, without sacrificing quality and efficiency.
- Maximum standardization in the workplace: ensuring consistent product quality and reducing the likelihood of errors or defects during the manufacturing process.
- Ability to manufacture a wide variety of products: Thanks to the versatile and modular design of the workstations, different production requirements can be met.
- Small-scale production workbenches in a row: providing greater flexibility to their manufacturing operations.
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