The use of Lean Manufacturing principles to improve production processes by better designing of assembly cells

Abstract

Abstract One of the pillars of Lean Management is continuous improvement of production processes. Thus, while designing new workstations, it is worth taking into account the requirements resulting from this management philosophy. The question remains how to formulate these requirements, at what design stage to use them and how to do it. A very important aspect of work stations’ design is their ergonomics. Considering the ergonomics of a workplace, we should adapt it to the human anatomical and psycho-physical capabilities. The use of takt time to determine the production capacity of the assembly cell makes it easier to organize tooling, working hours and other factors necessary for effective production. After determining the takt time, it is possible to settle the number of assembly stations we need to achieve the required performance in the analysed time horizon. Another important aspect of Lean Manufacturing is enabling continuous flow of materials between successive production processes. Continuous flow at the assembly stage is ensured by the layout of work stations in accordance with the order of technological operations and thoughtful arrangement of production equipment. This will facilitate further acceleration of production orders, elimination of activities that do not add value, and reduction of labour consumption in the assembly process. In accordance with the aforementioned Lean Management recommendations, a conceptual design of an assembly cell for an example product from the electronics industry was developed. In the case of the analysed product, the idea to ensure continuous flow was to build the assembly cell at the stage when the product design was completed and its trial series produced.