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2/14/23 LEAN ROBOTICS IE454– Industrial Robots Dr. Majed Moosa Week 7 1 A BETTER WAY: LEAN ROBOTICS ■ Lean robotics is a method for efficiently deploying robotic cells in factories. ■ The end goal—as with everything you do in your company—is to create value for your customers and drive business r...

2/14/23 LEAN ROBOTICS IE454– Industrial Robots Dr. Majed Moosa Week 7 1 A BETTER WAY: LEAN ROBOTICS ■ Lean robotics is a method for efficiently deploying robotic cells in factories. ■ The end goal—as with everything you do in your company—is to create value for your customers and drive business results. ■ Lean robotics isn’t about technology per se , even though the methodology is applied via the technology of industrial robotics. 2 1 2/14/23 What is Lean Production? 3 LEAN ROBOTICS It consists of: ■ Four core principles ■ Three phases covering the robotic cell deployment process 4 2 2/14/23 HOW LEAN ROBOTICS IS ALIGNED WITH LEAN MANUFACTURING ■ The lack of standards in robotics—of hardware, software, and technology in general—is hindering everyone’s robotic cell deployment efforts. ■ Lean manufacturing is about: 1. Customer value —Defining value from the customer’s point of view. 2. Value creation chain —Mapping the chain of activities that produce this value. 3. Waste elimination —Conserving resources and reducing waste along the chain. 4. Continuous improvement —Taking small yet steady steps towards perfection. 5 How do we apply Lean MANUFACTURING to robotic cell deployment? ■ Robotic cells should not be treated any differently from the rest of the activities on your manufacturing floor. They are a means to an end: – Creating value for your customers. ■ And as with lean manufacturing and agile programming, lean robotics is an iterative, bottom-up methodology. ■ With that in mind, we start by defining the customers and what they value: 6 3 2/14/23 Lean Robotics 1. Customer value In a robotic cell, the “customer” is whatever step (or station) comes next on the production line. For this next station, “value” usually means receiving the right part, in the right way, at the right time, so the station can proceed with its operation. 2. Value creation chain This can be different depending on what phase of the cell deployment you’re in. In the operate phase, you want to look at the value-added transformation that the robotic cell executes on the parts it receives. In the design and integrate phases, the activities form a chain that will ultimately only generate value once the robotic cell is used for production. 7 Lean Robotics 3. Waste elimination To maximize the return on your robotic cell investment, you must minimize waste. And you should do it throughout the entire robotic cell deployment cycle—that means at the design and integrate phases, not just during operation. 4. Continuous improvement Lean robotics favors a robot-as-a-tool, bottom-up robotic cell deployment approach. It also encourages you to build your internal robotics and project management skills so you can keep continuously improving your robotic cell just like the rest of your production line. 8 4 2/14/23 The (simplified) lean manufacturing philosophy in action. 9 The (simplified) lean robotics philosophy in action By comparing both figures, you can see how the lean robotics approach is aligned with that of lean manufacturing. 10 5 2/14/23 HOW ROBOTS CAN AFFECT YOUR LEAN MANUFACTURING EFFORTS Sometimes robots can introduce new sources of waste that might actually work against your lean manufacturing efforts, such as in the following cases: ■ A robotic cell that requires new non-value-added tasks to be done. – For example, if parts arrive at the robotic cell in unstructured packaging that the robot cannot handle, a human operator might have to manually place the parts in a mechanical fixture so the robot can pick them. The creation of the fixture and the operator’s work are both non-value-added activities that were not part of the process before the robot was introduced. 11 HOW ROBOTS CAN AFFECT YOUR LEAN MANUFACTURING EFFORTS ■ A robotic cell monument that reduces your factory’s flexibility. -A typical example of a monument is the massive robotic cell in a car factory that pairs the chassis with the car’s body. In order to work, these so-called “marriage cells” require two separate production lines (one for the chassis, one for the body) to converge at a specific point in space and time. All other materials must flow in alignment with this cell, so it’s difficult to change the factory’s layout when improvements need to be made. 12 6 2/14/23 HOW ROBOTS CAN AFFECT YOUR LEAN MANUFACTURING EFFORTS However, these costs are often outweighed by the many benefits robots can bring to your lean manufacturing efforts, such as: 13 HOW ROBOTS CAN AFFECT YOUR LEAN MANUFACTURING EFFORTS ■ Improvement of product quality. Because robots are excellent at doing the exact same operation again and again, they have the potential to improve your production line’s consistency and reduce the number of defective products. ■ Elimination of human ergonomic constraints on the production line. Sometimes the production line’s capacity is constrained by human limitations, such as when manual operators simply cannot go any faster. If that’s what’s slowing down production, robots can increase your output. 14 7 2/14/23 HOW ROBOTS CAN AFFECT YOUR LEAN MANUFACTURING EFFORTS ■ Time savings. Even if robots don’t reduce production time directly, it’s better to have a robot standing idle than a human employee or a multimillion-dollar machine. ■ Prevention of human health and safety issues. For example, one factory was able to eliminate workers’ carpal tunnel problems by having a robot take over the tasks that were causing them. 15 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN ROBOTICS Four Principles 1. PEOPLE BEFORE ROBOTS This principle has two components: – A. Robotic cells must be safe for humans. – B. Robots must be tools usable by all. These are the guidelines that we, and all members of the robotics community, must abide by if we are to make robots work for us. ■ “PEOPLE BEFORE ROBOTS” vs THE FUTURE OF JOBS 16 8 2/14/23 THE EXPONENTIAL CURVE OF PROGRESS IN ROBOTICS TECHNOLOGY. 17 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN ROBOTICS Four Principles ■ ROBOTS MUST BE TOOLS USABLE BY ALL This means we should aim to make robotic cells that are accessible and understandable by everyone. From a lean manufacturing standpoint, there are TWO main benefits: 1. if robots can be used and adapted by all your workers, it will create great synergy in your business: humans can identify areas for improvements, and robots can follow their instructions. 2. implementing this principle is also a way to avoid the risk of having too few people who understand how to use the robot(s). 18 9 2/14/23 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN ROBOTICS Four Principles 2. FOCUS ON THE ROBOTIC CELL’S OUTPUT - Your job as a manufacturer is to profit from making products that consumers are willing to pay for. This is why lean manufacturing is popular with so many companies: it helps the manufacturer focus on creating value for the consumer while eliminating waste along the way. - In lean manufacturing, the overall goal is to better serve whatever company or person is giving money to your business—the external customer. 19 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN ROBOTICS Four Principles ■ To achieve the end goal of lean manufacturing, you sometimes have to focus on serving the internal customer first. The internal customer is the process, station, department, etc., that will receive a given output within the factory. ■ In lean robotics, the main focus is always on serving the internal customer, and it’s defined as whatever station comes after the robotic cell in the production sequence. 20 10 2/14/23 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN ROBOTICS Four Principles ■ Keep in mind that in both lean manufacturing and lean robotics, an activity is considered value-added if it meets the following three criteria: 1. It must transform the product or service. 2. The customer must be willing to “pay” for it. 3. It must be done correctly the first time. 21 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN ROBOTICS Four Principles ■ The robotic cell must create value for its customer. a) The robotic cell customer is the next station in the production sequence—the one that receives the robotic cell’s output as an input. b) This customer defines value as receiving the right parts, with the right presentation, at the right time, so it can in turn create value. 22 11 2/14/23 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN ROBOTICS Four Principles 3. MINIMIZE WASTE In lean manufacturing, waste is defined as energy and money that is spent but not converted into value for the customer. So for a business, waste is the difference between the energy and money we put into something, and the actual result that we get. Lean manufacturing defines three broad categories of waste 1. Mura—Waste due to variation. 2. Muri—Waste due to overstressing or overburdening people or equipment. 3. Muda—An activity that consumes resources without creating value for the customer. 23 MUDA IS TYPICALLY BROKEN DOWN INTO SEVEN SPECIFIC TYPES OF WASTE: 24 12 2/14/23 Two Timelines: one showing the impact of non-value added activities in a typical robotic cell deployment project like this one, and one showing the ideal scenario, where nonvalue-added activities have been eliminated. 25 PRINCIPLES OF LEAN ROBOTICS Four Principles 4. LEVERAGE YOUR SKILLS ■ At this point you might be asking “Who cares about building ‘internal’ robotics skills? All I want to do with my robotic cell is set it and forget it. Can’t I just subcontract it out to an external system integrator?” ■ Those “set and forget” robotic applications might sound compelling, but unfortunately they often won’t align with the reality of your factory’s needs. 26 13