Industrial Automation
Industrial Automation
OMRON Ayabe Factory is the site of ultra-high-mix low-volume production, where we manufacture approximately 20,000 items, ranging from sensors a few centimeters in size to inspection devices that are several meters large. It is mainly an assembly factory where high-quality products are efficiently produced by finely coordinating product design and process design activities. Processes within the production line that do not generate added value, such as transport, are automated to lessen the burden of on-site workers. Data obtained from the production floor is analyzed to visualize improvement points by uncovering procedural factors that affect production efficiency and quality. Tasks that traditionally required the skill and knowledge of veteran workers have been transformed into skill-free operations through automation.
Streamlining high-mix low-volume cell production requires transport that can deliver the right parts to the right place at the right time. Critical though it may be, this is not something that can directly improve product value. At OMRON Ayabe Factory, autonomous mobile robots have been implemented to automate the transport process. In this system, humans and robots work together to enable safe transport that can flexibly adapt to changes in floor layout. This allows on-site workers to focus on tasks with high added value, which in turn has led to reductions in lead time and work-in-process inventory.
Lens positioning is a crucial process in fiber sensor production, with a decisive effect on light emission capabilities. At the Ayabe Factory, image data, waveforms, and other process data are collected using IoT devices to create big data, which is later analyzed for automatic position correction to deliver consistent quality. AI controllers enable predictive maintenance, allowing advance action to be taken based on signs of failure and defects detected at assembly facilities. By managing equipment based on their condition instead of their length of operation (as in scheduled maintenance), maintenance can now be conducted on an as-needed basis, minimizing production line downtime and allowing for timely maintenance.
Intermittent downtime caused by errors due to equipment in autonomous operation can compromise utilization rate, quality, and stability. At the Ayabe Factory’s automated production lines, displacement sensors measure the slightest shifts in robot hand tip position. By monitoring changes in feature values, equipment anomalies can be detected and addressed before failures actually occur, reducing line downtime as well as part loss.
Material handling is a good example of a process which, while it adds very little value, is difficult to automate. At the Ayabe Factory, we use compact autonomous transport robots for flexible inter-process transport, automating material handling at a low cost. Designed to enable flexible and easy transport route modification, this system effectively cut transport facility costs by 50% and reduced the time required for its own design/construction by 20% by automating material handling in facilities where workpieces are processed individually and by using commercially available plastic rails.
At the Ayabe Factory, soldering tasks that previously required the “sleight of hand” and “sixth sense” of skilled veteran workers have been automated by employing robots tuned using high-speed camera footage of these workers. By converting tacit knowledge confined to specific individuals into explicit knowledge that can be put to systematic use, we created a system that delivers a high yield of over 99.97% with no training necessary, as opposed to the 60 days required to train a human worker.
AYABE FACTORY
Address
3-2 Narutani, Nakayama-cho, Ayabe City, Kyoto 623-0105
Access
20 minutes by taxi from JR Ayabe Station (JR Ayabe Station is 70 minutes from JR Kyoto Station by JR Sanin Line limited express train)
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