You need to organize the material flow properly, be transparent about planning and control operations and identify standardization and modularization potentials throughout the entire order-fulfillment process, from costing to design and programming to production.To ensure data consistency throughout the streamlined production process, please uses Siemens NX.
Apart from designing and using our own standard components to build our molds, we count on standardized design, You need standard elements that are always designed exactly the same. That is one key aspect of it, but you must also standardize the process itself. Reduction is key here. Take, for example, reducing the number of tools. When you have 500 tools, it is unrealistic to think you could operate an automated line. Fifty would be a good number, because your tool library remains manageable, and you can reduce potential sources for error. And these 50 tools will have to do, no matter what.” Hofmann explains that you must also standardize programming through libraries, configurations and attributes to execute the process in a secure and uniform manner. An automated workflow from design to NC code helps reduce programming time and eliminates errors. Since we never manufacture the same workpieces, standardization and process reliability are crucial for us.
In order to automate processes, the company must invest in some kind of technology capable of taking on manual and commonly repetitive tasks performed by its team. Although this represents a cost increase in the long run, this is not the case.
The costs of production tend to fall, since the number of errors is also reduced from the automation of processes. In some cases, even the number of people involved in a team can be reduced, or better still, relocated to other areas in which their intellectual efforts may be better employed.
It isn’t a stretch to imagine these electronic agents being given autonomy to, say, publish a travel warning, alert area hospitals to be on the lookout for certain patients or symptoms, or even begin redirecting traffic in transit to mitigate and control the spread of disease.
Once the robots master a single function, their utility tends to spread. Anything that can be standardized–from emergency protocol to preparing equipment–is fodder for automation. In the end, EHRs may be the worst example of technology taking over the healthcare sector; thus far, EHRs still don’t follow a single standard. For now, at least, humans are still essential to making the data move.
Your company has decided to add automation to one of your most critical processes. What is the reason for the investment?
Most companies automate a process to improve results through labor cost reduction. Many organizations see automation as a way to decrease labor and create a lower cost outcome. In fact, as many as 78% of companies decide to add automated equipment for labor reduction alone.
It’s true that removing manual labor costs produces a quicker return on investment. But a larger opportunity awaits. Think bigger. Why wouldn’t you want to go beyond modest labor savings? Why not take the opportunity to improve process outcomes, quality costs and cycle times in a big way?
Preparation before your automation implementation is key to the best investment return. An essential step in preparation should be a process review. A process review includes process mapping, analysis and potential redesign of identified problems.
For manufacturers with no production standards, a good first step is to establish a centralized engineering group. This group should consist of manufacturing, controls and process engineers, who can lead the charge in developing production standards. Their focus should be on creating rigid or “bullet-proof” standards, which will help minimize the likelihood of change orders arising from problems that weren’t proactively addressed.
Many automakers are eager to capture the value of Industry 4.0 and thus want to begin their standardization efforts at the software layer. But it’s important to start at the automation layer.
Newer auto makers are learning what their established counterparts have known for decades: Standardization can deliver significant business benefits.
Standardizing components, for instance, can help reduce the number of suppliers that automakers work with and help lower their acquisition costs. Longer term, it can also help them streamline inventories, reduce support costs and simplify workforce training.
And by standardizing everything from machine control specifications, to process tooling and data naming conventions, automakers can synchronize all aspects of vehicle launches. They can also reduce the likelihood of unexpected change orders or costly delays.
Standardization goes hand-in-hand with globalization. Automakers that want to consistently build the same vehicles are better equipped to do so when they have standardized machines, networks, processes and software in place at every production facility.
known as unmanned automation, currently it has been quite popular in foreign countries, especially in the automotive, home appliances, mold manufacturing and other fields. These production lines are almost operated by robots, workers just stand beside to do some support operations. Some plastic parts production factories are in complete automation process.
At present, mold manufacturing is turn towards to less humanism, unmanned machining direction. In a full-automation plant, one side, the production order and raw materials input, through products design, process design, manufacturing, processing, testing and packaging, and final products output in the other side of the plant. All worksare done by computer-controlled robots, CNC machine, unmanned transport trolley and automated warehouse.
In the implementation of automation, it also brings another major value is to promote the standardization process. Customer requirements shorter lead time, increasingly shorter production process, increasing products accuracy, prices continue to drop, competition becomes global. To meet all these requirements, we must have greater flexibility, higher quality and higher productivity. In the long run, the suitable solution is automation; it would be a future development direction of mold manufacturing
The more standardized the work of a given job, the more readily automation can take over for the human laborers. So while America bemoaned the export of its manufacturing sector to China, the Chinese labor market is experiencing sympathy pains as robots preclude the need for any further outsourcing.
Thanks to more than a century of obsession with standardization of just about everything, we are quickly facing the reality of automation spilling over from the places in which it is expected or even tolerated, to areas where we are challenged to defend why certain functions must be performed by humans.
If a lack of standardization means more ambiguity, one unavoidable consequence of this is going to be less reliability, and less consistent quality.
This is because not all approaches to any given task or procedure are created equal: there are better and worse ways to answer the phone, take down important information from a customer, and send status updates to your team.
One of the most important ways in which standardization can help to guarantee quality is by minimizing the chances that crucial details will be overlooked. For example, if you have a template for policy and procedure documents, you can use that to reduce the chances that someone will omit crucial information.
By standardizing the processes your organization depends on — and enforcing those standards — you will be guaranteeing the quality of the finished result.
Siemens has a virtual library of case studies regarding laboratory automation, and all of them point toward better outcomes, more efficiency, better use of staff time, and cost savings. Each example turns one or two standardized procedures into the busywork of robots, and eliminates previously tolerated or ignored variables into hyper-precise diagnostics (and by extension, clinical) outcomes. It also means less need for lab technicians on site, as previously time-consuming tasks can be offloaded to tireless machines.
Fundamentally, standardization means your employees have an established, time-tested process to use.
If done well, standardization can reduce ambiguity and guesswork, ensure quality, increase productivity, and increase employee morale.
Some of the benefits of standardization are as follows:
Improve clarity – because a standard process will eliminate the need for guessing or extra search
Quality assurance – because work is done in a pre-defined, optimized way
Increase productivity – because your employees don’t need to ask questions or sort through documents to get answers
Improve employee morale – because employees can be proud of their own processes and skills
Improve customer service – because every ticket is handled in the best way
All of our robots share the same pattern; they are made of modules responsible for different aspects around business processes (build the same way for all robots) and main module responsible for realization of the client’s business process. We also maintain the naming standards for elements of both the robot and the platform itself.
we were laying the foundation for industrial robots to take over the bulk of construction and assembly from humans. It doesn’t matter that such advanced robots didn’t exist when the assembly line revolutionized manufacturing; the important thing is that it standardized the functions of the laborers.
It is worth remembering that the word “robot” derives from a Czech word for “slave” or “servant.” Robots aren’t meant to take our jobs, per se–they are designed to do our work. It just happens to be that our jobs are comprised mostly of work.
The more standardized the work of a given job, the more readily automation can take over for the human laborers. So while America bemoaned the export of its manufacturing sector to China, the Chinese labor market is experiencing sympathy pains as robots preclude the need for any further outsourcing.
With the popularization of any new technology, standardization is essential