Case Study: Automation Systems Design

Automation Systems Design for Complex Part

Company is manufacturing a low margin, legacy part with complex feature to maintain relationship with good standing customer
Part is high-volume and due to complex feature required manual station
To meet demand manual station required four full-time, skilled operators working across two shifts
Company considered several options internally, but options failed to meet required cycle time without significant investment

Company had limited CapEx budget for project and wanted to repurpose unused hardware for cost saving opportunity
G90 designed automation system using existing hardware coupled with robotics that met cycle time and was well within project budget
Automation system included following features:
- Modularity to allow for use anywhere in plant
- Allowance for additional stations as needed in future
- Visual inspection to allow for 100% automated inspection and rejection

Automation system reduced labor time and labor costs by 85%, which allowed highly skilled operators to be redeployed to higher margin parts with greater complexity
Labors saving resulted in ROI of 375% over 5 year period
System designed to anticipate any future business or customer changes