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What is Automation?

What is Automation?

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What is automation? It is the act of adding of a mechanical device to a machine that allows it to operate with reduced, non-continuous input from an operator. This allows the operator to do other tasks while the machine is running.

In Lean, automation serves the same role it does in any other manufacturing system. It separates people from machines. This allows people to do fewer dirty, dumb, or dangerous tasks and helps them be more productive. Automation also powers the Lean principle of respect for people. It takes them away from mindless tasks, and lets them work on more interesting jobs.

Automation is generally accomplished by using a mechanical device on the shop floor and software programming in the office. In both cases, a repetitive, labor intensive task is done by machine with little or no human intervention.

Automation is different from mechanization. A drill press that an operator has to pull the lever on is manual. If a motor is added so all he does is hold a button down, the process is mechanized, but is not automated. If he can press a button and walk away, the process includes automation.

Automation, however, is often unintelligent. When a bit of decision-making is added to the automation, letting it detect abnormal conditions and stop itself or trigger a warning light (an andon), it becomes a jidoka system. Jidoka is essentially automation with an human touch.

There is a common belief that automation and Lean don’t work well together. In truth, jidoka, an advanced form of automation, is one of the central pillars of Lean. What doesn’t work well with Lean are expensive machines that are too big for a process. When many people think of automation, they immediately think of large CNC machines, or robotic assembly lines.

The key concerns that must be addressed when using automation in Lean

  1. That the machine doesn’t have long setup times, driving up batch sizes
  2. That the machine is flexible and can adjust to changing processes and products
  3. That the automated machine doesn’t take up excessive space, disrupting flow.

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  1. Autonomation Autonomation is automation with a human touch. It essentially means that an automated machine has the built in intelligence to identify when there is a problem, shut itself off, and...
  2. Machine Cycle Time Machine cycle time is the time a machine actually requires to produce one unit of output. Machine cycle time has three basic components. It has the time to load the...
  3. Internal Setup An internal setup is a task done to get a machine ready to switch from one product to another that must be done when the machine is stopped. Obviously, the...
  4. Automatic Machine Cycle Time Automatic machine cycle time, sometimes referred to as automatic machine time, is the time a machine spends processing a single part without an operator’s interaction. Automatic machine cycle time is...
  5. Nagara Nagara is a Japanese term meaning ‘while doing something’. It simply means to do more than one thing at a time. For example, a two parts may be fitted together...
  6. Jidoka The most common Jidoka definition is ‘autonomation.’ (The word is one of many Japanese terms that are common in Lean.) Lean Jidoka traces its roots back to the early 1900′s...

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