Productivity and quality improvement designs for a load-cell assembling line.

Abstract

In most manufacturing processes, improving both the productivity of the manufactory and the quality of its products at the same time is a challenging task, as one of them gets often compromised for the successful achievement of the other. In this paper we present two solutions to the issues involved in such an endeavour which are meant to effect a considerable reduction of the costs involved in the usage of labour, material handling and information handling related to the load-cell assembling line available in Flintec (Pvt) Ltd at Koggala Industrial Zone, Sri Lanka. Solution I discusses a novel design to remove the scribing process while improving the productivity. This low cost solution or the ergonomically designed workstation includes a projector and a fixture for positioning of load-cells. Solution II discusses a computerized system which integrates two measurements monitoring stations while reducing the cycle time by more than 25% and improves the efficiency of data handling. The design of this system consists of an automated residual stress releasing mechanism, a measuring unit, a controller circuit and a computerized data base. A PIC microcontroller with a relay bank is used for controlling the system and a user-friendly environment for data handling is built using C# programming.