Lear Corporation
Just-in-Sequence manufacturing of car seats
Lear manufactures car seating sets for the OPEL models Insignia and Zafira.
Customer:
Lear Corporation GmbH
65462 Gustavsburg | Germany
System:
Assembly trays, assembly lines,sequencer, load buffer, trailer equipment, JIT buffer, electronical control concept and IT organization
Design criteria
The seating sets have to be manufactured and buffered in a load buffer, in the requested order. Disassembly and reconstruction of the existing conveyor technology, extension of the sequencer and the installation of a new assembly line were also part of the project.
The solution
Pre- and final assembly of the front seats is in parts done on line, and in groups outside (of line), respectively. In the line, the mounting bases are transported on the conveyor from one work station to the next.In group production, several work stations are pooled to modules. The work stations are arranged in a parallel fashion with the main line; if they are reported to be vacant, they are automatically supplied out of the line.
Checking and test stations are also integrated in the assembly line. Manufacturing is finished when the front seats are placed onto a shipping tray. With a special handling device, the front seats are removed from the assembly tray and put onto the shipping tray. At the same time, the matching back seat is also positioned on the tray.
The shipping trays run into the JIT buffer, or they are moved by a sequencer directly into the load buffer (in the right order), collected as load unit and then via the docking station handed over to the truck trailer. The empty shipping trays are returned from Opel in piles of six trays; they are depiled automatically and routed back to the loading station. The information processing requirements are based on the requirements and experiences of Lear and psb.