One-Piece Flow Assembly Line for Production of ABB Drives
ABB is a world-renowned manufacturer of frequency converters that can control the speed and torque of electric motors. Their use provides significant energy savings and increased productivity. These products are widely used in various industries such as the oil and gas, mining, metal, chemical, cement, paper and wood and manufacturing industries. To assemble the frequency converters efficiently, safely and at a high quality, ABB required an assembly line.
Challenge
ABB Six Sigma’s improvement project gave birth to the idea of a manual assembly line that produces frequency converters to control drives, automate and make the production process more efficient and user-friendly. It is a universal product for controlling powerful motors. There was no previous standard solution for a device that manufactures frequency converters. Hoob was given the task to design, develop and build a completely new production line from scratch.
Solution
After about 4-5 months, a completely new line was completed. It was 14 m long and consisted of 6 workstations and 5 freewheel conveyors. The line made production faster and the structure of the line quickly gave the line manager a good overview of both the work stages and the material flow. The design of the line is also as ergonomic as possible for the employees.
Cooperation with Hoob has proven itself, we have established a reliable partnership. Joint projects with Hoob help to make our factory floors more ergonomic and automated.
Customer feedback
The line solved several challenges in the form of efficiency, ergonomics, use of the work surface and process control. The main goal was to increase production efficiency by reducing assembly time, because each investment must pay for itself. In addition, occupational safety has improved as well as the ergonomics of the employee – in the factory, we pay a lot of attention to ensuring that every employee goes home healthy in the evening. New IoT and digital solutions now help to monitor the movement and completion of products on the line in real time. Quality will also improve in the long run, as it will be easier to integrate smart quality control solutions on the line. For us, development at ABB is an ongoing process and we are constantly looking for ways to produce even more efficiently. We continue to make smaller improvements, but cooperation projects with HOOB help to implement bigger changes.
Article on ABB homepage: https://new.abb.com/news/et/detail/59883/elektriala-artikkel-eesti-noored-andekad-insenerid-ehitavad-masinaid-toostushiidudele
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