At parts assembly production sites, where parts are picked from stock, it is almost inevitable that picking mistakes will occur. As parts become more complex and their component types increase, the problem of picking mistakes grows. With Mitsubishi Electric’s Guided Operator Solutions, such mistakes can be easily eliminated, helping to reduce waste, improve quality and boost productivity.

Poka Yoke = mistake prevention

A poka-yoke is any system in a lean manufacturing process that helps an equipment operator avoid mistakes.  Its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur. Often in the form of a pick-to-light solution, popular applications unclude picking stations, parts replenishment, production cells and kitting-out

Statistically, it has been found that human error when picking parts is one of the most significant causes of mistakes in assembly operations. Typical problems include picking the wrong parts with a similar shape or name, picking and assembling parts out of sequence, or simply missing a part from a sequence. Pick-to-light addresses these issues.

While product inspection can prevent faulty goods being shipped to customers, it does little to prevent those defects from being introduced into the product in the first place. While for some companies a certain level of waste or rework will be accepted, for others there will be the desire to eliminate mistakes earlier in the production process before real value has been added to the product.

Tangible benefits

The costly impact of quality issues is largely recognised for manufacturing companies that engage in assembly tasks. Mitsubishi Electric’s Guided Operator Solutions not only significantly reduce the risk of these quality issues occurring but they also can be deployed in a diverse range of industry sectors where the benefits can be identified by both managers and operators.

In a typical application, where personnel are required to pick a number of different parts or products from bins in sequence, the chances of the worker correctly picking the parts with 100 % reliability every time are small. At the very least, a significant proportion of the production time will be taken up by looking for the right part and ensuring that it is indeed the correct part number. In the worst case, a mistake introduced into the product will go unnoticed until further up the production line -if at all.

However, with the Mitsubishi Electric Guided Operator Solutions in place, the automation system guides the worker to the correct parts bin, perhaps by simply lighting an indicator next to the correct picking location, or by opening a shutter and requiring an operator acknowledgement of the successful pick of the correct part. Picking becomes not only inherently more reliable and mistake free but also much faster, so both quality and overall productivity improve.

Guided operator Solutions

The design of the Guided Operator Solutions has been based on simplistic concepts. Terminals are easily installed on racking and connected via a dedicated cable that avoids the need to run multiple cables back to the main controller, significantly saving on wiring costs.

Intuitive connectors also enable fast installation of networks without the need to cut or strip the wires. Terminals are quickly setup with an address writer and using a dedicated software they can be directly mapped to the controller. This allows the applications to be easily configured, programmed and maintained.

For more information, download Mitsubishi Electric’s Guided Operator Solutions brochure from 999 Automation