Lean Automation and Smart Manufacturing
Explain the Relationship between Lean Automation and Smart Manufacturing
With the continuous advancement of the society, the market demand has been continuously transformed from a market that was originally mass and single to a diversified market. In recent years, labor supply has been declining year by year, and labor costs have continued to rise. Such a change has led to an increasingly fierce market competition for enterprises, and the profit margin of enterprises is getting smaller and smaller. Therefore, many manufacturing companies choose to replace the manual production method with automated production to improve product quality and production efficiency, so that their own products are inexpensive and can occupy a place in the market competition. However, many companies today have many problems in the process of adopting automated production methods. How to judge the rationality of equipment functions, how to plan equipment layout schemes, how to achieve production line balance, and how to improve equipment utilization have become urgent problems for enterprises. important question.
1. Lean Manufacturing and Lean Automation
1.1 Lean Production and Automation The
Toyota Production Method is called TPS. In 1985, MIT gave TPS the name “Lean Production”. Lean manufacturing has two pillars, one is just-in-time production (JIT) and the other is automation. The composition of lean production is shown in Picture 1.
Automated production can achieve product quality and save people's work. In the automatic production, it is the premise to produce 100% qualified products. In the production process, the equipment can automatically detect equipment abnormalities and product quality abnormalities, and can automatically stop, and resolutely not down the defective products to the process. Moreover, since the device can be automatically stopped, it is not necessary for the dedicated person to pay attention to the operation of the device all the time, thereby realizing the saving of the operation.
1.2 Lean Automation
Lean automation production is derived from the concept of lean production. It integrates JIT, IE, 5S, and other ideas and improvement techniques into automated production, and cooperates with production beats for production operations. Through program analysis, job analysis, motion analysis and other IE methods, reduce waste and improve production efficiency. Combined with rapid mold change, information visualization, 6σ and other technologies to improve product quality and adapt to flexible production. From the automation level to optimize the continuous flow, to achieve comprehensive lean automation of production, coupled with big data, Internet of Things and other information technology factory can enter the ranks of intelligent manufacturing.
2. Lean Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing
2.1 Introduction of Lean Automation
Under the premise of ensuring production safety, the automatic import is divided into 4 modules and 23 sub-items. The four modules are tool automation, process automation, production line automation, and factory automation.
2.1.1 Tool Automation
Tool automation is mainly to reduce the labor burden of the operators. The use of some simple auxiliary tools to complete the production operations during the operation is a change from "human work" to "tool work". The main sub-items are as follows:
(1) Tool props: General tools are processed as special tools for easy use.
(2) Processing automation: manual work tools are moved to small equipment such as electric and pneumatic.
(3) Position: The location of fixed props and small devices.
(4) Automatic delivery: the work of props, small equipment and the work of people are separated.
(5) Home position reset: After the job is completed, the props and small devices can be restored to their original positions.
2.1.2 Process automation
Process automation is mainly based on man-machine separation operation. The operator only needs to do the clamping and take the workpiece. To realize the one-person multi-machine and the less-humanized creation, it is the "person's work". Make a transition to "the work of the machine." And because the machine error rate is smaller than the manual operation of the personnel, the product quality can be greatly improved. The main sub-items are as follows. The process automation level is shown in Picture 2:
(1) Automatic fixture: The position of the workpiece is fixed by the clamping device.
(2) Automatic machining: The machining of workpieces is carried out automatically by electric, hydraulic, pneumatic and other methods.
(3) Automatic transmission: The transmission of workpiece parts is carried out automatically by electric, hydraulic, pneumatic and other methods.
(4) Automatic stop: The machined part stops moving automatically after the workpiece is processed.
(5) Automatic home position reset: The machined part will automatically return to the original position after stopping machining.
(6) Automatic pop-up: The workpiece will pop up automatically after the workpiece is processed.
(7) Automatic handling: The workpiece is automatically moved to the next working station after being ejected.
(8) Automatic measurement: All parts are automatically detected after the workpiece is processed.
(9) Automatic installation: The installation of workpiece parts is carried out automatically by electric, hydraulic, pneumatic and other methods.
(10) Automatic start: After the workpiece clamping is completed, the machine automatically starts the processing program in the process.
2.1.3 Production Line Automation
Comprehensive safety, tool automation, and process automation are aimed at reducing manufacturing costs and improving product quality, from the “point, line” to “face” level of production. The upgrade to the top of the line is the automation of the production line , the main sub-items are as follows, the production line automation demonstration map is shown in Picture 3.
(1) Beat time: no matter what kind of workpiece, it must be manufactured within the specified time.
(2) Front and rear control: There are workpieces in the pre-process, and the equipment does not work in the post-process.
(3) Single piece flow: Only one workpiece is flowing in each process.
(4) Pilot system: Some equipment has a control adjustment system.
(5) U-type production line: The layout of the equipment is arranged according to the U-shape according to the process.
2.1.4 Factory Automation
Lean automation has been realized through the “point”, “line” and “face” finishing lines. The next step is to realize the lean automation of the factory. The main sub-items are as follows:
(1) Delivery is ready: The cargo has a strange detection system.
(2) Visual management: The production status of the factory can be visually understood.
(3) Most of the housing: combined with relevant departments to quickly solve problems.
2.2 Lean automation equipment development
Lean automation equipment must meet the following six basic principles when developing.
(1) The equipment is highly maneuverable, the pipelines are neatly arranged and flexible, and the joints can be used as needed to facilitate the connection with the upper and lower stations.
(2) The equipment has strong stability, the workpiece is of high quality and stable, and the equipment itself has few failures.
(3) High equipment utilization, special purpose machine, short air running time, high motion synchronization, and there are no additional functions to meet the required capacity requirements, no excessive waste of capacity.
(4) The equipment is easy to operate and debug. The material is placed in the same position as the material. The height of the workbench is convenient for the staff to operate. The working range is minimized and the consistency is high. After the pre-process, the post-process inlet is narrow and the depth is deep. Easy to connect, there is a dedicated maintenance and debugging "window".
(5) The conveyor belt is of the growth type, the employee's work movement is synchronized with the transportation, and the working time is within the range of the line pitch and the line speed ratio. The line speed can be set according to the production distance, and there are “connecting rods” on both sides of the pitch line. The wired body is activated and stopped in the employee's work area, and the line and body movements are accompanied by sound and visual alarms.
(6) The equipment is flexible and can be used as a special equipment by carrying special parts. Special equipment can produce different types of products by changing different parts, or it can increase production capacity. The equipment can be transformed by partial parts modification.
2.3 Docking automation and intelligent manufacturing docking
Intelligent manufacturing is a revolutionary integration, reshaping and innovation of the enterprise and value chain in multiple dimensions with new technologies (big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing, etc.), enabling participants in the entire industry chain (R&D, production, supply , sales, use) In a flexible, autonomous, open cooperation system to participate in the development of products to sales and even the end of the product life. Manufacturing companies can enter the ranks of intelligent manufacturing by implementing lean automation production methods, combined with information technology such as MES, ERP, CRM, and PLM in the industrial 3.0 era, supplemented by new technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, and cloud computing.
3. Summary
With the development of machinery and information technology, the popularization of industrial engineering and lean production knowledge, the introduction of intelligent manufacturing, lean automation production methods began to infiltrate in the manufacturing industry, and played a significant role in promoting the production of products. Manufacturing companies can use this “Dongfeng” to gradually introduce lean automation production methods to enhance production efficiency and improve product quality in order to cope with complex and volatile markets. It can also be used as a ladder to adopt new technologies such as big data, internet of things and cloud computing. Achieve smart manufacturing in the factory. The company's own product visibility and corporate image can be enhanced, allowing enterprises to stand in the torrent of the times.
