The assembly line, reassembled

Beyond the nature of the UK’s future trad­ing rela­tion­ship with the Euro­pean Union, sup­ply chain chal­lenges and an on-demand econ­o­my, the sin­gle biggest unknown for man­u­fac­tur­ers is the effect of con­sumer choice on prod­uct dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion: “What will they want from us next?”

It has been quite some time since the first mass-mar­ket Mod­el T Ford drove off the pro­duc­tion line (avail­able “in any colour so long as it’s black”). Then, the knowl­edge and skills need­ed in the fac­to­ry were lim­it­ed to around eight key areas of prod­uct choice. Today, man­u­fac­tur­ers cater to a mis­cel­lany of con­sumer tastes in which choice has become the pre­req­ui­site to pur­chase.

Per­son­al­i­sa­tion, spec­i­fi­ca­tion and design have inflat­ed oper­a­tional and sup­ply chain com­plex­i­ty, raised sig­nif­i­cant qual­i­ty issues on the fac­to­ry floor and, ulti­mate­ly, affect­ed man­u­fac­tur­ers’ bot­tom lines.

In our lat­est research man­u­fac­tur­ers told us they are plan­ning to meet the chal­lenges of the next five years by increas­ing invest­ment in a host of new tech­nolo­gies to bring goods faster to mar­ket, address bur­geon­ing com­plex­i­ty and improve con­nect­ed vis­i­bil­i­ty through­out their facil­i­ties. This last area is pos­si­bly the most sig­nif­i­cant because it has the great­est poten­tial to alter plant floor oper­a­tions and mit­i­gate against com­pli­ca­tions brought about by con­sumer choice.

The solu­tion lies in the use of tech­nol­o­gy to imple­ment best prac­tice across all areas of the oper­a­tion, to con­trol cost and qual­i­ty issues. Aug­ment­ed and vir­tu­al real­i­ty tech­nol­o­gy, and fac­to­ry robot­ics are often con­sid­ered key to this effi­cien­cy. How­ev­er, the real first step is in more famil­iar ter­ri­to­ry, RFID (radio-fre­quen­cy iden­ti­fi­ca­tion) and bar­code scan­ning.

Once a tru­ly effec­tive field of data cap­ture and active com­mu­ni­ca­tion is enabled across oper­a­tions, all com­po­nents, sta­tions, work­ers and equip­ment can be auto­mat­i­cal­ly iden­ti­fied and tracked as they move through the var­i­ous gates and stages of pro­duc­tion.

The rich and scal­able lev­el of vis­i­bil­i­ty made avail­able by this tech­nol­o­gy opens up pos­si­bil­i­ties for main­tain­ing or improv­ing out­put with small­er lot sizes. Items can be tracked as they arrive at assem­bly points and oper­a­tors can be linked to devices and con­trol servers.

Using vis­i­bil­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tools to help facil­i­tate human and machine inter­ac­tion is also a cru­cial ele­ment in bridg­ing the man­u­fac­tur­ing skills gap. Some of our auto­mo­tive clients tell us it takes two weeks to teach one of their work­ers how to under­take work cell assem­bly activ­i­ty in the class­room. This old-fash­ioned method of learn­ing to assem­ble and check three times over can now be repli­cat­ed on the fac­to­ry floor and in half the time. Instead of rote instruc­tion from a line man­ag­er, an audio-visu­al instruc­tion can teach work­ers while the chas­sis moves along the assem­bly line, there­by dig­i­tal­is­ing the stan­dard oper­at­ing pro­ce­dure

The future of man­u­fac­tur­ing will emerge from tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions with vis­i­bil­i­ty at its core

Over the next five years, the require­ment of work­force skills will trans­fer into new areas of pro­duc­tion, allow­ing work­ers to be more proac­tive on the line. Tool­mak­ers are learn­ing pro­gram­ming lan­guages to oper­ate CNC (com­put­er numer­i­cal con­trol) machines and robot­ic equip­ment, and main­te­nance teams are dig­i­tal­ly enabled by mobile or wear­able devices so they can look up the schemat­ics of equip­ment on-site.

It’s this dig­i­tal “look-up” and avail­abil­i­ty of visu­al inter­faces that reverse many of the prob­lems asso­ci­at­ed with silo-based work­ing. Over the next five years, less time will be spent read­ing hand­writ­ten notes, spread­sheets and log books to find instruc­tions and ser­vic­ing records. Across the line, qual­i­ty issues will be cap­tured before they leave the fac­to­ry and work­ers will be less reliant on their line man­agers. All nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion will become acces­si­ble at the right moment and for the right task.

As an indus­try, man­u­fac­tur­ing is in the unique posi­tion of being caught between the famil­iar prac­tices of the past and the poten­tial of the future. As com­pa­nies face the demands of an uncer­tain future, the future of man­u­fac­tur­ing will emerge from tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions with vis­i­bil­i­ty at its core, pro­vid­ing a view across oper­a­tions so man­u­fac­tur­ers can respond to changes in demand. And this starts by embrac­ing tech­nol­o­gy to build a dig­i­tal visu­al­i­sa­tion of your oper­a­tions