18th Edition of the Journal of Innovation Rapid Advancements in Digital Transformation | Page 49

A Continuous Improvement ( Kaizen ) Driven Approach for Realistic Digital Transformation

5 SMKL CASE STUDIES There are remarkable track records in a wide range of industries around the world by using SMKL . We would like to introduce 3 case studies to capture the value of improving smart manufacturing implementation in practice . As for manufacturer , ROI is defined as shown in Equation 5-1 . When user demands keep on increasing at a steady pace , the income will flatten out . Then , how to control the cost is the key point to ensure success for manufacturer ’ s business . We also look into ROI in each use case to check the cost efficiency that meets the needs of business performance improvement .

Equation
5-1 ROI formula
Case Study 1 : Poka Yoke Empowered Worker
Despite smart manufacturing , manual work is still vital in manufacturing , especially for workstations with small batch quantities or complex processes . The Japanese Poka Yoke principle is a solution that aims at the systematic elimination of human errors , coupled with guided worker . Poka Yoke in this case study provides consistent worker guidance to eliminate mistakes by integrating on-site technology , visualization , and wide range of components for individualization . Poka Yoke has empowered workers eliminate human errors , and ensured high assembly quality 9 .
Issue specified : Low worker production efficiency and uncontrollable cost management
• Work speed and errors vary depending on workers
• Difficult to distinguish the worker mistake and the frequency it happens
Implementation : In this use case , we introduce a Guided Operator Solution for the worker assembly process and integrate it to the workstation to have an error-free workstation (
Figure 5-1 ). In the Guided Operator Solution , a controller is installed on-site in a small control cabinet , which is the intelligent , individually configurable and expandable heart of the solution that controls the picking and assembly sequences . Apart from the controller ,
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Poka Yoke available at https :// www . mitsubishielectric . com / fa / cssty / 09 _ martinshof / index . html 42
November 2021