Customer Challenge
Automotive OEM needed productivity improvements in their assembly process.
- Reduce changeover downtime
- Better planning and scheduling
- Optimize part flow in plant
Solution Approach
Assessed Current Situation, Designed and Executed a part tracking and visualization system that:
- Communicate part flow to the lineside operators in real-time.
- Ensure proper parts are all available to the operators in their stations at the right time.
- Track the location of each unit throughout the assembly process and present part flow visualization to the operators on in-station HMIs.
Results
Quality
Less misbuilds by emphasizing unit type and the part required for each assembly for the operator
Productivity
Greatly reduced downtime losses (sometimes 5% or more) by better communicating batch flow through the process and helping ensure operators have the proper parts available