Electrical Engineering

What makes up a factory? Is it the staff or the boss? These are some question that would have been brought up in the minds of people when doing the factory project. The goal of this project was to have a smooth running factory that would ultimately produce 50 clocks in 15 minutes. But the main purpose was to produce a clock every 18 seconds. Everyone in the class had a different job to do whether it is the plant manager or someone putting clock faces in sub-assembly 2. During the factory we faced problems along the way that was built in purposely so that we learn how to fix them. We had to also think of different ways to fix the things that was going wrong our factory. A lot of things had to be done in order for our factory to run effectively.

Before we actually started the project we had to come up with a way to set up the factory in order to produce the number of clocks that we needed. Different people had different ideas and we ultimately had chosen the one that we thought was the best out of every ones. The one that was chosen really was a good idea because everyone was close to everyone and things would run smoothly.

When we started this project we set goals that would make our factory run the best that it could be. Since we were supposed to act as if our factory was real, we had to overall make 50 clocks in 15 min. An average factory would make more in less time but we came close. Different clocks were to be ordered such as a black clock standard, blue clock standard, blue clock custom and black clock custom. Gradually we had to make one clock every 18 seconds. Once we had this idea in our head that it would be harder then we think things quickly became complicated.

When doing the factory we obviously had to acquire an assembly line that had the most 3 people putting together the different parts that consisted of the standard clock. Sub- assembly 1 would put the clock backs on the clocks body. I was part of this group in the first 2 factory runs and it was a pretty easy job that only took one person instead of the 2 that were there. Then, for sub- assembly 2 that person would put clock faces on the body with the clock attached. It would go towards sub- assembly 3 and then be puts the clock hands onto the clock faces. As it works through the assembly line its final stop would be through final assembly puts the clock faces into the finished assembly. The assembly line was the main cause for problems and probably why we didn't produce 50 clocks in the first 4 runs. To make sure that the clocks were efficient and worked them also went thorough final test worker and rework specialist before getting packaged and shipped off. Final test worker visually checks all clocks to make sure it meets company standards. Re work specialist repairs all rejected clocks that was sent from the final test worker. Thorough out runs the assembly line encountered problems.

Our factory was not even close to perfect because we encountered countless problems. Some problems that seemed too happened to us is that our sub- assembly 3 went slower and slower every run. Packaging also seemed to have problems when problems were fixed with sub- assembly 3. Also when the factory run happened the different clocks were being made that we didn't even need so that slowed down shipping and trucking causing us some clocks in the end. But at one point final test and rework specialist went very slow causing a lot of pack ups. Costumer service also went slowly during a factory run because he couldn't write fast enough or process the forms. Like any great factory there were problems.

With every great problem there came a solution. For different problems we came up with different solutions. We noticed that there were problems in the assembly line. When we calculated the different Takt times. The solutions was to add someone sub-assembly 3 so the process would go faster. Next we decided to fire the tool crib manager because we found out that he was not necessary in the factory. Sub assembly 1 and 2 were combined because we decided 1 person could handle it all. We also used different processes like kaban, T.Q.M, and P.O.U.S.T, which helped us get organized in our factory and made us ultimately more efficient. Another