The TSP 6000 Turret Stockpicker from Crown Equipment Corporation (New Bremen, Ohio, U.S.) recently won the IDEA 2006 Silver Award presented by the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA). Crown radically redesigned its turret truck to regain dominance in the market. The Turret operates in narrow aisles to reach racks as high as 38 feet. New features include both front- and side-facing seat positions, and the new model is said to provide greater comfort and security.

While some appliance makers, such as Maytag and its new owner, Whirlpool, have embraced the lean manufacturing philosophy, lean has been slow to catch on in some parts of the appliance industry. The thinking in some parts of the industry has been that lean might work for the automotive industry, but let’s wait and see before doing anything rash.
But that is changing. The lean manufacturing philosophy and its offspring, lean automation, are accelerating to drive change in appliance assembly automation and material handling. OEMs, squeezed by mounting global competition, strive to eliminate every bit of waste by reducing plant downtime and errors, automating manual tasks and reducing parts inventories. Lesser drivers of change are impacting assembly automation and material handling as well, including safety and ergonomics, flexibility and the need for product tracking.

Going Lean

“Lean manufacturing is one of the biggest trends in manufacturing and affects not only the appliance industry but virtually all industries,” says Mark Dinges, product manager, Material Flow Automation Technologies, Bosch Rexroth Corporation (Buchanan, Michigan, U.S.). “Today, lean manufacturing is most commonly associated with manual production systems. While manual production systems may be the optimal assembly solution for some applications, other applications are better served with a mix of manual and automated systems, and still others may benefit most from a completely automated approach. Variables such as Takt time, cycle time, part size, and even local labor costs must be considered.”
He notes that advantages appliance producers are looking for in their assembly systems include modularity, flexibility and quick changeover time. One solution he cites is the Rexroth line of TS assembly conveyors, which are non-synchronous, pallet-based assembly conveyors. The modular, flexible design makes it easy to combine manual and automated workstations on the same assembly system, or to reconfigure or expand the system as assembly requirements change.  
Automation is essential to lean operations, according to Tim Crider, Midwest operations manager, Stapla Ultrasonics (Wilmington, Massachusetts, U.S.). “The global market and competition are driving automation. If U.S. companies want to stay competitive, they have to go to automation to make their processes leaner and quicker, and ensure quality control, or move their operation to less expensive geographical regions.”
“Just-in-time and lean manufacturing still dominate,” says Joe Ciringione, North American sales and product manager for Igus, (Providence, Rhode Island, U.S). “None of our customers wants to carry inventory or spare parts. They need to be able to access them when they need them.”
He adds that another lean trend is OEM demands for value-added products. Igus, which makes Energy Chain cable carriers and Chainflex high-flex cables, is responding with cable already installed inside the cable carrier and with all the connectors and accessories attached. “It’s a turnkey item. They don’t have to use their own people to assemble it.”

Automating to Reduce Labor Costs

Suppliers say that OEMs continually seek to reduce labor costs, sometimes to the extent of getting the worker out of the equation altogether. “We see the control of labor costs as being the key in fastening operations,” says Steve Rogers, general sales, Gesipa Fasteners USA (Lawrenceville, New Jersey, U.S.). “Gesipa employs automation to the blind riveting process, thereby reducing direct labor and ultimately the in-place costs for the fasteners installed. This is especially important in the U.S. market where we’re competing for jobs that are moving overseas to markets with lower labor costs. We see productivity gains of as much as 50 percent by operators using Gesipa’s automated feed riveting systems.”
Robotics systems are increasingly used to handle manual tasks, transport parts and materials, work in hazardous environments, and achieve precision. Fanuc Robotics America, Inc. (Rochester Hills, Michigan, U.S.), demonstrated a two-phase intelligent assembly cell at the 2006 International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS). The M-710iC robot features six axes of motion, an extremely large work envelope, slim profile, and small footprint. Multiple mounting methods including floor, ceiling, angle, and wall, enabling users to have better access to unusual work pieces.  In addition, the FoundryPRO option makes the entire robot IP67 protected for operation in harsh environments.  
“This is an exciting new robot based on its capabilities and flexibility,” Virgil Wilson, Fanuc Robotics product manager, tells APPLIANCE. “It’s rated ‘best in class’ for speed, and has one of the largest work envelopes in its class.  In addition, its compact size, and ability to flip over and work behind itself maximizes flexibility for work cell design and saves valuable floor space.”

 

Borrowing Ideas from Automotive

One thing the automotive industry has gotten right is lean manufacturing. Appliance manufacturers stand to gain from the downturn in the auto industry as suppliers like Ingersoll Rand shift more of their attention from the auto industry and bring their lean expertise to bear in the appliance market.
“I think the appliance industry is taking a lot of cues from the motor vehicle and aerospace industries,” says Michael Medaska, business manager for the Specialty Channel of Ingersoll Rand Company’s Industrial Technologies Sector (Annandale, New Jersey, U.S.). “As it relates to our business, which is precision fastening and ergonomic handling, those are industries that for a long time have seen the advantages of going to more automated systems and more tightly controlled processes. For example, a car manufacturer measures and records the exact torque applied to a lot of different bolts on a transmission for safety and liability reasons. So we’ve developed systems and software that allow them to actually record and output that torque or angle data to a database and archive it forever. In the unlikely event of a field issue with that specific transmission, that manufacturer could produce hard evidence that they applied torque X to bolt Y on date Z and prove that the component was assembled properly.”
He sees applications for appliance assembly, even though there are fewer critical joints involved. “With SPC or monitoring tools in our software you can actually watch your fastening process over time to ensure you are inside your upper and lower process control limits for torque or angle. With the hard electronic data in front of you, you have the ability to adjust your parameters to get a more consistent process, and then you’re avoiding re-work, reducing the number of defects in your process, and reducing warranty claims.  That’s the kind of thing automotive companies have being doing for a while. We’ve benefited from the adoption of the same technology by appliance manufacturers.”
Dick Montague, director of Custom Engineered Systems, FKI Logistex (Danville, Kentucky, U.S.), suggests another idea appliance manufacturers might borrow. “In the automotive industry, we already have people-moving conveyances, and I would anticipate people-moving in appliance manufacturing as well. The person moves on a floor conveyor at the same speed as the assembly line as opposed to walking along. It’s safer and more efficient.”

The simple modular design of TGW-Ermanco’s chain conveyor for unit loads is said to greatly speed installation, improve performance and reduce inventory of spare parts

The compact Lift Stik from Presto Lifts distributes the load evenly over four oversized casters to roll easily over thresholds and uneven floors. A hand-held push-button remote allows the operator to lift or lower the platform from any side of the unit and at dual speeds for safe, efficient control. Ergonomic, contoured sponge grip handles can be adjusted to accommodate operators of different heights.