"The devil is in the details" is a saying that you may have heard
before. This saying is appropriately applied to the process of defining
a manufacturing automation solution. This saying can be applied all the
way from the broad statement like, "We need to automate our assembly of
products", all the way down to the smallest part of the assembly
process. I guess since there is such a great deal of effort involved in
the assembling of all the details that make up the process that you want
to automate, the devil is present in the gathering. But actually this
collection of details does not have to be difficult, if it is done in a
practical and realistic way.
One of the first steps you need to
take in starting the process of gathering the details of an automation
solution is to define the quality specifications for the product that
will be manufactured by automation. You need to know all the specific
dimensions of the product. This should include all the tolerances that
can be allowed in the creation of the product. These kinds of
measurements will help to define the areas of automation are the most
critical, if you don't already know what they are. If there are
sub-assemblies that are part of the product assembly make sure that you
have well noted tolerances for these critical interfaces in the product.
As we have discussed earlier it is important to have different
viewpoints from your company involved in the input of the details that
support the addition of an automation solution. It has been determined
that having several viewpoints involved will give you a better chance of
gathering all the details that are important.
Another area of
detail is that of the minimum throughput that will be required of the
automation. You will need to determine how much production can be
expected from an automation scenario, and whether this rate is one that
can be tolerated by the company and your customers. You will need to
know what the minimum production rate is for each work station or work
cell. Once that is known you must decide if the production created by
the slowest part of the automation process is at a rate that all parties
can accept.
If you place the automation into an existing
facility, you will need determine the amount of space that can be carved
out to accommodate it. In reviewing the space requirement be sure to
investigate the need for special preparations for the automation. Is
there a need for foundation reinforcement? Is there a need for
additional wiring in support of automation? Such questions should be
discovered at this time in the process so that answers can give input to
the budget and other considerations later. The process of determining
space requirements should include the details of acceptable
configuration. The automation solution must have a configuration that
has a positive impact on the other areas of plant operations. For
instance, the inventory-in-process that may be generated by the new
automation cannot negatively impact such areas for existing production.
You
are the expert when it comes to the manufacture of your products.
Gathering the details about how this manufacturing occurs will give you a
well-defined list of instructions that you can pass to an automation
provider. The more detail that you define in this early process of
automation, the easier it will be to tell the provider what your
automation requirements are. Defining as many of your needs
(requirements) as possible before you have a conversation with a
provider is a good early objective. You may discover that once you do
have a conversation with a provider about your list of automation needs,
the expertise of the provider, provided they are well experienced, will
add to your list. Knowing this in advance should not keep you from
developing a well-rounded list of what you require, based on your
product knowledge.
The list of your requirements for automation
should probably contain some reasoning about why you do manufacturing
the way you do it. It is fine if you determine that some of your current
processes are performed because "that is the way we always did it".
Having automation put into your process will help to eliminate the
traditional methods that are not contributing in a positive way to your
production. You can be assured that the provider will be able to give
you good reasons why automation will be expected to perform each task
that it is expected to do.
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