Automation Equipment Reduces Assembly Time and Cost
Meadville, PA - October, 2008
Problem:
One of Tech's aerospace industry customers has a product that consists of three high precision molded components assembled into 12 different configurations. The parts were being hand assembled at two different off-site providers. The parts had to be molded, transported off-site, assembled, sorted for re-work, inspected and shipped to the customer. The turn-a-round time was over 10 days for 50,000 assembled parts. Inventories had to be kept high to supply the customer with parts as needed and to keep the off-site assembly vendors stocked with assembly work. In addition, the possibility of human error was great with many hands and suppliers touching the parts over a several week time-period.
Solution:
Tech co-developed automation equipment that increased the number of assembled products from 50,000 every ten days to 100,000 every two days. The automation dramatically improved the through-put of the product from molding through assembly, decreased the volume of parts required in inventory to meet hand assembly delivery schedules and improved assembled product quality well over 400%.
Because assembly is done as the parts are molded, Tech’s inventory levels and management of the multiple configurations can be kept at “Just-In-Time” with shorter production runs and greater responsiveness to the customer’s variations in part number requests. The injection molded components are fed into the automation equipment through vibratory feeder bowls as they are molded reducing part handling and minimizing the possibility of assembling incorrect components.
The results have been astounding for the customer and for Tech. The investment in automation provided a break-even return within 8 months reducing every aspect of product overhead involved with hand assembly and virtually eliminating scrap. Product capacity, quality and Just-in-Time availability enabled the customer to capture greater market share with more flexibility in order demands and a significantly improved cost structure. |
