Logistically driving production efficiency

Innovative and flexible materials handling solutions are giving manufacturers the edge over the competition. Göran Abbestam* writes.

THE automotive industry has always been extremely competitive. With production lines increasingly being established in low-cost labour countries – a global overcapacity of as high as 20% according to a recent survey of auto-executives conducted by KPMG – automakers have to cut every unnecessary cost.

This results in extreme cost-saving and productivity demands on their suppliers.

While huge markets are opening up with the rise of the economies in East Asia and Eastern Europe, these tend to be very price sensitive.

Delivering to growing markets normally requires setting up manufacturing plants locally in order to adapt to the local market, keeping costs down and being able to offer short delivery time.

Quality demands on the automotive industry are rigorous. Stronger environmental regulations demand that manufactured goods are produced consistently with high reliability.

Meanwhile, the factory environment must also comply with stiffer environmental regulations, regarding waste disposal, energy consumption and the work environment for operators.

The challenge is to produce greater volumes at lower prices with shorter product life cycles – lean production has become the mantra of the automotive industry.

The leader in lean production, Toyota, has shown the way in the chase for an optimal flow of goods in production, with a minimal cost and with the highest quality standards.

In productivity terms, this means to increase throughput, yield, reduce throughput time, minimise changeover time, and avoid equipment breakdown.

In the automotive industry, improved production logistics solutions are important drivers of the productivity development.

Increasing volume does not always mean increasing the speed of production lines, although they may come hand in hand. Even more important is to be able to balance the line so the workstations and machines are utilised in the best way.

This can be done if the conveyor system offers flexible routing in order to adapt manufacturing flow to maintain the highest possible throughput and in balance with the demand.

Such flexible solutions, accompanied by control software, can automatically re-route products to alternative stations in case of a machine breakdown, or if an operator is temporarily away from their station.

Only in an ideal production line in an ideal world, are workstations equally highly utilised. But even in the harsh situation we may find ourselves in today, we can come very close with flexible systems, so called FMS solutions (Flexible Manufacturing System).

Shorter life-cycles introduce great flexibility demands on production lines. The manufacturing lines must allow for flexible routing, minimal and simple re-setting in order to achieve high line efficiency. Machines and equipment must be as easy to install or move as possible.

Control of the process is a must, so line overview and the communication with operators and machines must be easy and precise.

Customers’ quality demands and tougher environmental regulations pose great challenges to the auto parts manufacturer.

Eliminating production problems early in the process is a major measure to reduce losses. Easy-to-use and automatic quality assurance systems enable quick detection and direct execution and logging of actions. With flexible routing, the product is directed to re-work stations to remedy the problem.

Efficient solutions

When preparing the implementation of a new production logistics solution, a thorough mapping and analysis of the processes involved set the basis for the line layout.

Parameters to consider are the time and the flexibility required.

A good piece of advice is to perform a value stream analysis, mapping the material and information flow covering all logistics from dock to dock to identify bottlenecks, throughput time, productivity and use it as the base for new implementations.

A well-designed and flexible assembly line can achieve major cost reduction results, and at the same time be robust for its job and withstand non-stop production with the highest possible MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures). Maintenance should be kept at a minimum, be predictable and easy to perform.

A high performance conveyor system is the platform for an efficient logistics system in a manufacturing line.

An efficient pallet system should handle each product, or cluster of products if they are small, individually, thus offering: product identity carrier for tracking and tracing; a fast throughput time; protection of the product and; minimal machine and equipment re-setting.

Fast throughput is achieved through a single-piece flow, meaning a controlled flow of individual products through the manufacturing process, with a minimum of losses and waiting time. After a completed operation, the pallet goes directly to the next station in a pull-flow according the Kanban principles.

This enables controllability of the manufacturing line process, a short throughput time and minimum of WIP (Work In Process).

RFID technology offers a dynamic identity method for communication in real time between the product, the process and the production logistics software.

The pallet is a standardised carrier of the product, thus enabling handling being unchanged irrespective of the product distributed through the line.

The pallet handling functions such as locating modules, tunnel locating modules, merge/divert modules, and elevators all have readers for identifying the pallet and communicate with the line control, which may be linked to the overall manufacturing software.

Pallets come in different configurations, depending on the application, for example as ESD-approved, for low friction or for tough or clean environment. Keeping track of every single item also allows the line to be balanced, in real-time if necessary, for the lowest possible throughput time and WIP.

This raises throughput and productivity. Products are kept separate during transport and assembly, minimizing potential damage to the product.

Since products are uniquely identifiable, machines can perform different operations on different product without the need to reset the line.