OCTOBER 2019 MAINTENANCE
a quality process. Compare
that to some of the bigger
companies we’ve seen that
get blinded by the green
lights and volume to the
detriment of quality and
process improvement.
Smaller companies will invest
to get their quality right if
the companies they supply to
have certain standards that
have to be met.
Smart Connected Assembly
There are five ‘steps’ to Atlas Copco’s Smart Connected Assembly process,
designed to help determine what each assembly environment needs.
Step 1 covers AC torque tools with advanced clutch mechanisms,
controlling and monitoring torque level and shutting off to avoid overtorqueing.
Step 2 moves into batch counting, helping eliminate human error even
further by assisting operators with the correct assembly sequence.
Angle joint control is covered in Step 3, ensuring that all joints are
consistent for soft and hard joints, avoiding cross threading, excess
washers and missing parts.
Step 4 covers safety critical connections, using traceability and closed
loop data to ensure integrity and quality of fastening.
Step 5 focuses on line control quality assurance, with the provision of
full data collection and crucially for many manufacturers, integration
into existing PLCs (programmable logic controller) via open protocol
software.
“A lot of customers just assume that we help
them turn on green lights. If you just want that,
you don’t need Atlas Copco engineers, tools and
expertise, you just need something to validate
your understanding that everything is going well.
If you don’t look at the data and understand
it, it’s meaningless. As an industry, we have to
move away from thinking everything is great
because it’s all green. To a lot of people, green
lights mean targets are being hit, and everyone
gets a bonus. We run training sessions around
tightening techniques, where we try to reinforce
the idea that it’s the engineers’ responsibility
to balance production volume with quality. The
more you can increase the production control,
the more you impact the volume. If you always
do something because that’s what’s asked of you,
of course you’ll get a green light. But that’s not
the be-all and end-all.”
The benefits of technology
If well-implemented, technology can provide
significant benefits when trying to improve
on your green lights. Atlas Copco has found
that manufacturers can improve quality, cut
defects and reduce rework by as much as 15% by
deploying the latest error-proofing technology.
Those companies using Atlas Copco’s Smart
Connected Assembly technology (see box
above), including Pick-to-Light, saw significant
benefits. Pick-to-Light ensures operators
continuously pick the right parts for assembly to
mitigate defective batches of products.
Maintaining quality and eliminating errors
are primary concerns for every manufacturer;
in today’s connected world, doing so is more
powerful than ever thanks to the huge quantities
of data being produced. However, it is vital that
companies understand their data and react
appropriately to it, instead of just being blinded
by the green lights on their shop floor.
To read the full Atlas Copco whitepaper,
Error-proofing the production process, visit
https://bit.ly/2lQtViY
Atlas Copco
Tools general
manager, James
McAllister
looking retrospectively at data
to find out what went wrong,”
he says. “Near real-time data
makes it much more proactive.
People also get preoccupied
with red lights and bottlenecks.
While technology will help
turn those red lights into green
ones, it also, vitally, helps you
analyse the green lights. If all
you’re doing is turning off the
red lights, you’re not improving
anything, you’re just fixing the
current problem. The whole
conversation around highquality
data should be focused
on using the data to drive
improvement. If you look at
the green lights and assume
they’re all good, then fix the
red ones, that’s fine if all you
want is a sea of green lights.
But what’s to say that the green
lights are the best they can
be? You don’t improve quality
by fixing bottlenecks. That’s
something that isn’t yet visible
to many customers – how do
we do what we do well, better?
“We recently visited an SME
that makes parts for showers.
They were using some of our
technology to an incredible
level to monitor and maintain
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk 37
/2lQtViY
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk