COOKER ASSY & TEST 

The Challenge

Building products which are highly customised manually whilst relying on operator skill and memory can increase the risk for human error. The manual handling operations increased the risk of causing defects. The business wanted to introduce automation but did not know where to start or what good looked like. The facility available for the new pilot line was long and thin. The business could not afford to loose time to market if mistakes were made or commissioning and robot programming was done on the line. The business needed to gain buy in from the shop floor and senior management.    

The Solution

The team created a point cloud of the facility, a computer aided design model, automation simulation and virtual twin app, to test the design of the new line before building any physical elements. The project was a multi-solutions provider collaboration. The operators were guided through human machine interfaces, robots visually inspected the products at key stages and LEAN MOVE solutions were developed to transfer product from conveyors to goods out.

The Results

• Phase 1 and 2 completed, commissioned and production running. 
• Data-based decisions on automation and design via virtual twin simulations.
• Flexible make to order custom cooker manufacturing capability.
• Virtual twin was used to present to CFO who approved next phase.
• GO LEAN developed VECTIO MOVE™ movers and a rework cell in 2025. 

Our team developed a semi-automated optimised assembly factory, simulating manual and automated processes to prove production capacity. The team designed custom automation & robotics solutions to meet customer automation requirements for assembly, robotic testing, handling and full traceability, including conveyors, turnover system, vision cell, robotic inspection & glueing.