1. Design Review of Equipment Concepts

When you work in production engineering, you may have to purchase and install equipment. Capital investment also involves a large amount of money. You can't even make major changes after installing equipment. Here are some points to keep in mind at equipment concept stage. The following are just a quick overview.

1-1．Equipment Size and Overall Layout

There are space restrictions when introducing equipment to a manufacturing site. Unless you have a huge amount of space in a new plant, you have to place new equipment in limited space in an existing area.

The same concept applies to the installation of one entire production line. Since the area is limited, we have to take into account the dedicated area of the equipment and movement of people and materials, to review if the space is OK or not. Since the equipment supplier does not know the circumstances of the plant, the production engineer who places the order for the equipment must be responsible for making this assessment.

*The layout will be explained in detail later.

1-2．Parts loading and unloading (including NG handling)

Next is the material flow. Whether the direction of product input and output is consistent with the way the line flows, where to discharge NG, and if there is a parts feeder or other parts input, whether it is in an easily accessible location, etc.

The guideline for loading and unloading parts is within 150mm from the edge of the equipment. Over 200mm, the operator has to reach out to load the product. This makes it less productive.

In the case of automatic equipment, NG discharge must be separated from normal operation. Depending on the NG rate, if the automatic cycle is stopped for every NG discharge, the operating rate will decrease. The system must be designed to be able to discharge and process defective products without stopping the normal automatic cycle.

If bulk parts are to be fed into the machine, such as a parts feeder, the working height and supply method must also be carefully considered. When placing a tank of grease, glue, etc., you also have to make sure that there is enough pipe switching and work space for the replacement process. If you reduce the size of equipment too much, you will regret these aspects later on.

1-3．Detailed Structure and Expected Accuracy of Each Process

Then there is the detailed structure. For example, in the case of a press-fit machine, the structure of the press section, where is the reference position for measuring dimensions, which part of product is used for positioning, how much force the press has, and whether the rigidity of the equipment is sufficient. We'll also review the methods for top and bottom centering, how to zero reset the dimensions and their dimensional instructions.
In the case of inspection equipment, there are several factors to consider, such as whether the resolution of the equipment is appropriate for inspection specifications, positioning, product scratch prevention, and repeatability.

1-4．Cycle time

When a equipment concept comes up, we assume the cycle time while imagining each operation. The question is whether or not there is room for the required cycle time. In the case of an automatic machine, you can make a timing chart of each operation to ensure that the machine's operation time has safety margin. If it is a manual machine, the cycle operation, including loading and unloading time by operator, must meet the requirements.

As a point of reference, you must allow for some margin. This is because there are factors that can slow down the cycle time after the equipment is completed for reasons of operational stability and accuracy.

1-5．Selection of Components

Make sure that the equipment you are using is not unique. PLCs, touch panels, cameras and special control equipment, etc., should be consistent to some extent with other lines and other process equipment. The reason is operational risk reduction.

By standardizing, inventory costs and management labor for spare parts can be reduced. In addition, the standardized operation method eliminates the need for unnecessary training and speeds up the recovery process when a problem occurs.

1-6．Ease of Disassembly, Assembly, and Reproducibility

Finally, easiness to disassemble and reassemble.
In the case of single units, this is not a problem. But in the case of multiple units, the design must take into account the connection and positioning methods between units, transport methods, and wiring and piping connections between units. In some cases, you might say, "We'll leave everything to our suppliers to install, so it won't be a problem," but if you're an engineer, you should be able to at least disassemble and assemble the equipment yourself. Wiring and assembly will help you understand the equipment better.

2. Equipment Concepts in Japan and overseas

As an aside, here are a few of the differences I've noticed in my interactions with domestic and international suppliers. When I started working in the late 2000s, 2D CAD was common. The product design department used 3D drafting software, but this cost a fairly expensive annual license fee.

In the 2010s, we had more and more opportunities to work with equipment manufacturers in different countries. Whether it was a small or medium-sized company, they were using 3D software to draw equipment. Since that time, 3-D software was becoming mainstream. Most of our overseas suppliers had prepared 3D drawings. On the other hand, we had about 7 Japanese suppliers at that time, and without exception, all of them had 2D drawings.

Although the final drawing will be 2D, 3D drawing is easier to confirm the details of the structure at the conceptual stage and reduces the risk of misunderstanding. 2D is more difficult to understand than 3D, and some people may misunderstand the structure. Looking at this fact, I can understand why Japan's manufacturing industry is losing its presence to the rest of the world. They hold on to old ways of doing things and can't get on top of technological trends, and innovation doesn't happen.

3. Preparation of the line layout

I have seen many cases where the layout was not considered until right before "physical" installation of equipment. The proper way to do this is to grasp the whole picture and then decide how to arrange the individual equipment and how things should flow. However, those who can't afford to pay attention to such things will put together the equipment ( designed freely by the equipment manufacturer) like a puzzle. The work order is opposite.

3-1．Preparations before ordering equipment (line layout is essential)

- Securing Free Space
The area in which the new production line is to be installed is usually fixed, so the entire production line has to be well suited to that area. The outline structure of each piece of equipment is determined based on the outline of line layout. There's no such stupid thing as "we've got the equipment, but we don't have a place to put it".

- Make a rough layout before ordering equipment
When ordering equipment to single supplier, there is no such a big mistake. However, when you place a distributed order, you have to put together disparate pieces of puzzles designed by each company.
Instead, we have to get an overall picture first, and then we have to specify where to load material and in which direction the product should flow. Of course, the buyer side has more information than supplier, so it's necessary to make sure there are no omissions. The information must be deployed and directed accurately.

3-2．Consider the layout at full capacity

If there is a future expansion, a full capacity layout should be prepared first. For example, if the production capacity is 500,000 units in the first year, and the production volume increases to one million units in two years' time, the equipment layout for one million units will be drawn in advance.
Then, only what is needed in the first year will be adjusted as initial layout. If you don't see the whole picture first, you'll end up in a silly situation where you'll have to move existing equipment when you install additional equipment, or in some cases, you won't have room for the additional equipment.

Also, depending on the equipment, it may be necessary to move the existing equipment to make room for the additional equipment. If it's a stand-alone equipment, it's fine. But if it's a complex equipment with disassembly and assembly, it will require a lot of additional man-hours.

Most of the time, when it's time to expand, the equipment is in production every day and it's difficult to find the time to disassemble and reassemble it. To prevent this from happening, all equipment sizes, product inputs and discharge locations are carefully considered at the equipment concept stage.

3-3．Confirmation of equipment layout

The layout should illustrate the location of parts trays, operators, intermediate products and raw materials. Illustrating the flow of products with arrows so that you can see the overall material flow and placement of opertors will lower the risk of failure later.
Some equipment has accessory parts (e.g., cooling chillers, hydraulic tanks, dust collectors, etc.), which should be also shown in the layout without skipping. Based on the above, we carefully check if there is enough space for operator to work and if there are any problems with the space to supply material.

Once the arrangement of equipment, people and materials is completed, jigs and tools, work desks, master storage, and material storage areas are located next. You have to have other things on the production line besides equipment.

First, there are spare parts and jigs and tools. This will be needed in the unit of the cabinet. The next step is to place the master samples. You will also need a place for off-line work desks and measuring instruments for pre-operation inspection and analysis of defective products.

Finally, there are the materials. You don't necessarily have to put it in line, as long as a temporary place for them is available outside the line. However, it can take up a lot of space, so we should leave some free space.
If you can illustrate all of the above on your layout, you will now have a pretty complete layout.


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