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With the change to valve manufacture it is likely that there will be a dramatic increase in all
phases of machining from coarse to fine. Overall the plan calls for a doubling of working
hours in the machine shop, though the introduction of production scheduling would reduce
the overall figure by cutting the amount of dead time a current feature of the machine
shop. The introduction of flexible manufacturing would reduce this by 90 per cent. As the
quality of the work would be substantially improved, time spent on quality checks would
disappear.
Carron Associates also found that much of the work in this area was considered to be
boring and repetitive and the introduction of new technology was likely to substantially
reduce this work component. In common with other areas of the company a greater time
spent on training and meetings would be a necessary part of the new plan. The details of
the current level of activity and likely future changes are included in table 14 in Appendix
A.
Assembly
Carron Associates also identified substantial potential improvements in the assembly
process. They proposed that one of the major problem area that of component assembly
should be subcontracted, while the introduction of suitable computer controlled devices
could substantially improve the efficiency of the component installation. As a result of the
greater quality that would be achieved, these changes would reduce the need for checking
and quality control time. This equipment would cost around € 30,000 to install and the
operatives would require around twenty days training to be fully functional. Such
equipment would be separate from the computer aided manufacturing systems in the rest
of the factory, and would therefore be another 'stand alone' system.
Assembly was considered to be the most boring and tedious part of the shop-floor work,
and employees were particularly keen on seeing any change that would reduce the
amount of time that had to be spent in this area. The increase in training and meetings
would be to an extent offset by the introduction of production scheduling. The impact of
new technology on the planned hours worked in the assembly section are listed in Table
14 in Appendix A.
Inspection
The improved quality achieved by the investment in flexible manufacturing systems would
significantly decrease final inspection. With the increased level of valve manufacture it was
forecast that the need for packaging would increase three or fourfold. Investment in
automatic packaging equipment could significantly reduce this at a cost of € 45,000, a
system that could also be introduced separately from the rest of the proposed equipment.
Increases in training and meetings would also have the effect of increasing overall
demands in this area and are listed in table 14 in Appendix A.
Maintenance
The impact of the new manufacturing systems would also have an important effect in
reducing the level of routine maintenance. The likely changes are shown in Table 14 in
Appendix A.
Warehouse
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