Assembly Automation Is Where Products Are Built

One of the areas of manufacturing that has gained a significant amount of improvement from automation is the assembly of products. When properly configured and fully integrated with other parts of manufacturing operations, assembly automation can contribute a lot to the efficiency of product manufacturing. The delivery of improvements in effective assembly automation is usually done under the stringent demands that companies have for high production rates, low maintenance, and much improved changeover times between production runs. Assembly automation has been successful in meeting the demands in multiple industries, with the numbers of implementations of automation growing daily.

Assembly automation offers substantial benefits to any organization that brings this capability into their manufacturing mix. There is a reduction in risk after assembly automation has been established for a business. The amount of product handling that is required and the potential damage to products that are handled is reduced significantly. Overall performance in manufacturing is improved, due in part to the fact that there is a reduction in the possibility of failures causing reduced production time. Changeover time between production runs is minimized, and maintenance is reduced. Since there is an increase in production reliability there is a reduction in the amount of rework that is required. Improved flexibility comes to the operation in that more different types of products can be manufactured with a lower amount of setup time and expense. There is an improvement in control and much easier integration or upgrading of the technical environment. Reliability means that there are thousands of hours of continuous operation of automation before there is a possibility of failure. Automation will reduce required part and end-of-tool handling, which reduces manual changeover and storage of tools. Automation gives manufacturing a smaller footprint that opens the limits of the operation to very flexible production functions.

Flexibility from automation includes the ability to pick parts from multiple locations for accurate assembly. In fact work cells can be designed to pick parts for multiple product manufacture from a given work cell, thus minimizing changeover and start up of subsequent production jobs. Automation will optimize the speed and delivery of parts in an assembly operations so that there is no degradation, but increased production rates. Repetition to exact locations increase product quality at an increased rate. Take all of the human inefficiency out of changing from one production job to another using accurate automation. Automated tool changers get the assembly tools up and running much faster than any human can possibly can. Space in the plant is optimized due to the smaller footprint of equipment that is used in automation.

Automation can receive its needed instructions for set up from information that is stored in a database. Once the product that requires the set up of the production line has been determined, a controller, at the command of an operator, can instruct a program to perform the retrieval of set up parameters from a database that contains that information. This database will give the automation controller all the settings for part movements, directions of movement, and stopping points that automation will need to perform during the product assembly. In some cases manual efforts are totally eliminated for line changeover. Automation allows for a reduction in the number of operating components and mechanical devices that are required in manufacturing. This reduces the cost of parts, but also the amount of time and effort that is required for their maintenance.

During product development automation can assist with accurate simulations of production for a given product. Having accurate positions, speed, and locations of devices that are required to produce a product can contribute positively reduce product development time and expense. Automation will give a company consistency in equipment use and application. Once the first automation for assembly has been installed and employees are trained and able to use the equipment it becomes it easy for new installations of equipment from that same manufacturer to be made in the facility. It is a very easy process for automation that has been initially set up for assembly to be reassigned to work in a different area of production, like material handling or packaging.

Your company is a good candidate for automated assembly if your manufacturing has problems accumulating part or cannot feed or orient them correctly. This is also so if your equipment cannot handle the wide variety of parts that your production requires. Outside influences like short product lives can make your facility a good candidate for automation. Sometimes the consolidation of processes into a smoother assembly operation will make automation the best choice for your production. Pressures of demands from customers for products and your limited space for producing them will push you toward automation of assembly.