Robotics helps free employees to focus their attention on value-adding activities.
Lean efforts get an assist from ADAM robots by RMT Robotics, autonomously delivering required materials to where they are needed.
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Additional Technology Assists
Otis Technology’s lean efforts get additional technology assists. For example:
- An automated storage and retrieval system with 500 pallet positions has helped consolidate the location of inventory, without increasing the amount of inventory.
- An automation solution eliminated what had been a bottleneck in the manufacturing process, as well as difficult to perform. While those specific jobs were eliminated, the employees were reassigned to other jobs where help was needed.
- Automated chip collection was added to a CNC machine, eliminating a nonvalue-adding but necessary task that had been performed manually. Automated oil filtration also allows the manufacturer to recycle oil.
Philbrick notes that the ultimate goal at his facility is to eliminate waste, not simply automate it, and that is where continuing efforts are aimed.
The combination of lean and technology has reaped strong results at Otis Technology. On-time delivery, which averaged in the mid-80s in January 2009, has averaged 99.8% since January 2010. And inventory turns have increased by about 96% since 2009.
