Standardized concept of equipment automation

In this article, I'm going to talk about "Standardized concept of equipment automation". In the field of production engineering, productivity improvement is always a major concern. If you're usually working casually, you may not pay much attention to it, but companies are developing strategies. In the case of Japan, due to the shortage of human resources, all industries are being automated and labor-saving.

In the 2010s, the company I used to work for also started to focus on the automation of mass production equipment as a major theme. After a few years, we had achieved our goal of automation for the time being, but then we could see the next challenge.

【content】

  1. Purpose and Benefits of Automating Mass Production Equipment
    • Reduction of direct labor costs through equipment automation
    • Reduction of quality risk through equipment automation
  2. Current status of equipment automation and challenges for the next step
    • It makes maintenance work easier
    • Reduces the space and cost of inventory as a spare part
    • Stronger negotiation position on prices when purchasing equipment
  3. Disadvantages of automating mass production equipment
    • It reduces the flexibility of the mass production line
    • Risk of equipment failure due to machine breakdown
  4. Summary

1.Purpose and Benefits of Automating Mass Production Equipment

There are two main purposes for automating equipment

1. to reduce labor costs at the workplace
2. Quality improvement


Reduction of direct labor costs through equipment automation

Labor costs and profitability are estimated at the time of considering the project introduction. All companies always make cost improvements in response to changes in internal business conditions and the external environment.
Especially in developed countries, the labor cost is 5~10 times more expensive than in developing countries. Even if the equipment is a little expensive, if it can directly reduce the number of personnel, it should be adopted.

Even in the case of developing countries, you need to take into account inflation and economic growth rates in that country. This is because a few years after the introduction of new equipment, labor costs may be higher than originally expected.

Reduction of quality risk through equipment automation

The second perspective on quality is that "it is not dependent on people's judgment", "not dependent on people's skill", and "not affected by a shortage of people (i.e., newcomers don't have to be in charge)". Unlike in Japan, worker turnover is high in other countries. Frequent worker turnover is a risk to product quality, so the aim is to reduce the number of direct workers as much as possible.

2.Current status of equipment automation and challenges for the next step

Before the trade war between the U.S. and China, industrial machinery and FA machinery manufacturers were performing well. This is because every company is working on the theme of automation and efficiency. Indeed, automation of equipment has been increasing in recent years.

However, the concept of automation is not consistent across companies. This does not mean that there is no consistency among companies. It means that there is a lack of consistency in the internal production line.

Eg) One line uses a pallet-conveyor system while another line uses multi-axis robots.
Eg) For some processes, Company A's multi-axis robot is used, but for other processes, Company B's multi-axis robot is used.


As you can see, there is a lack of consistency in automation inside the company. Although the goal of labor saving and automation has been achieved, the next step is not really considered. I think this is due to the lack of automation concept at the general manager level.

The next step is the integration of equipment concepts across the entire line and plant. The benefits of doing this are as follows

It makes maintenance work easier

Equipment maintenance is also a tough job. When equipment breakdown occurs, the recovery process requires a high level of expertise. However, if production engineers introduce equipment with inconsistent specifications, they have to learn how to recover each piece of equipment. This is a huge load on the maintenance team and a huge loss in the event of equipment failure.

Reduces the space and cost of inventory as a spare part

As the size of the plant increases, this inventory of equipment spares alone can exceed $1 million. If we can standardize the specifications of the equipment, we can standardize the inventory of these spare parts. This will reduce the inventory cost and space.

Stronger negotiation position on prices when purchasing equipment

The use of identical specifications will create negotiation power for the price of component parts. For example, the more multi-joint robots purchased, the lower the unit cost of multi-joint robot. Secondly, we can simplify the equipment design by using the same design concept. This lowers equipment design costs.

3.Disadvantages of automating mass production equipment

Next, let's look at the disadvantages of automation.
Automating mass production equipment is not only an advantage, so you need to properly understand the risks involved.

It reduces the flexibility of the mass production line

The disadvantage of automation is that it reduces the flexibility of the mass production line. For example, if you want to run a new product on the same line, you will have to design the product in a way that follows the mass production line.
Long-term increases or decreases in production volume must also be taken into account. When it comes to automated lines, equipment cannot be added or removed so easily. Future expansions and removal of specific equipment from the line must be fully considered.

Risk of equipment failure due to machine breakdown

Automating also raises the maintenance hurdle. Even if a stand-alone machine can be operated by cheating, this is not the case with an automatic machine. For example, even a single sensor failure can cause the entire line to stop.

Even a failure in component that is not directly involved in product manufacturing (for example, a ball screw or coupling in transport units) can cause the line to stop.

This is a difficult area for automated equipment. Engineers pay attention to the more critical parts of the equipment, such as the product assembly and product inspection areas, but they don't pay much attention to the transport areas that are not doing the essential work.

Therefore, in the case of automated equipment, the inventory cost of spare parts, which must be kept as insurance, increases. It is for these reasons that the unification concept mentioned above is important.

4.Summary

The ideal automation concept is considered for the entire line and plant as a whole, and then broken down into individual lines and processes. It is also necessary to carefully consider the long-term increase or decrease in production volume and the availability of future capital investment.


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