The assembly process in manufacturing plants typically is the largest drain on human labor resources.  Anything that can be done to speed up that assembly process is critical.  Especially, if it creates a reduction of labor and increased throughput, and increased quality in the final product.

Customer

A Global supplier of compression molded plastic parts to tier 1 automotive, Heavy Truck and bus, Heavy equipment, marine, reactional vehicle manufacturers.

Challenge

This company has 3 work cells installing multiple fasteners into door panels for Tier 1 automotive.  They were using two tools per station (One DC, One pneumatic) and manually inserting and driving to torque 3 fasteners.  This resulted in 3, 8-hour shifts of assembly 5-6 days a week to meet production demands.  With this process, torque values were not being collected and there was no assurance of quality.  Resulting in inconsistent quality, frequent rework, and often rejected batches of parts.

Air Power’s Solution

Air Power, Inc. in Partnership with Design Tool Inc. (DTI) proposed a solution utilizing both Ingersoll Rand DC Tools and DTI screw feeders.  This would reduce Takt time thanks to the DTI screw feeders and assure consistent torque values and alert if there was an issue from bad fasteners,cross-threading, etc.

Result

Utilizing the DC tools along with the DTI Screw Feeders we were able to dramatically reduce takt time, increase quality, and dramatically reduce the amount of labor needed to meet production demands.

• Labor was reduced from (3) 8-hour shifts running 5-6 days a week to (1) shift 4 days a week.
• First Pass quality increased by 80%
• Rework is almost non-existent because any defects in fasteners or torque are corrected or captured in the work cell instead of at the end-user or in the quality department.