Over/under workstation eases seat assembly
Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/2/2001
Before a Ford Ranger cruises down the highway, its parts do considerable traveling of their own. Seats for each Ranger assembled at Ford's St. Paul, Minn. plant must make an hour's trip from the Johnson Controls plant in Hudson, Wis., and arrive at the Ford facility just in time, for example.
Building seats for the Ranger is the sole mission of the Hudson plant. Seat assembly is an operation that must proceed according to a tight timetable.
"Signing up with Ford to deliver on our promises," says Mark Holoubek, Johnson Controls materials manager, "means we have to be geared up and ready to go at all times during the work day."
A new over/under workstation helps Johnson Controls meet Ford's demands for seats delivered just-in-time and sequenced (by design and by color) to go into each freshly painted vehicle.
The workstation moves containers – using counterweights and gravity conveyor – through three stages: from a top load point (stage 1) to a working level (stage 2), and finally to an unload point (stage 3). Visual materials on the manufacturer's web site demonstrate the flow through these stages. The manufacturer of this workstation worked closely with Johnson Controls to meet its needs for capacity and size.
"When I was first involved with the setup of a plant in the mid-1990s," recalls Holoubek, "I liked the over/under concept. But I didn't want the maintenance problems from external powered units that used electronics and pneumatics."
After he contacted the workstation manufacturer, its president came up with an idea for conveyance equipment that, as Holoubek explains, "works using counterweights as the means of power, rather than air or electricity. And I knew we had the answer."
This manufacturer's "can-do attitude and problem solving skills resulted in a very cost effective and durable piece of equipment that we rely on every hour of our operations," Holoubek adds.
This equipment now handles the task of making a smooth flow of seat armrests available to the assembly line in the most ergonomically safe manner. "It does so without straining the worker," he adds.
First, a forklift loads the equipment (stage 1) with a filled container of armrests. With the pull of a lever, the operator lowers the container to an ergonomic position (stage 2). Meanwhile, as the operator pulls armrests out of the container, a forklift arrives and places another filled container in the ready position. When the operator is finished with the first container, the equipment cycles it to the back of the workstation, ready for pickup (stage 3).
At no time does the operator have to stop and step back while a filled container is brought to the line or wait for a forklift to remove an empty container.
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