Frank Ahrens, Vice President, Hyundai Motor Global Corporate Communications, writes in The Hyundai Motor Blog:
We reported on the opening of our new manufacturing plant in Brazil last month with plenty of news and pictures, which we posted on our Twitter feed, @hmcglobalpr.
But I want to circle back to one particular innovation at the Brazil plant and dig a little deeper, because it’s a great illustration of Hyundai’s new thinking.
Our new plant in Piracicaba, Brazil – about 160 kilometers northwest of Sao Paulo – employs a new kind of parts-supply setup called a “one-kit” system. This factory is where our Brazilian Car Of the Year-winning HB20 is made.
Typically, on an automotive assembly line, the cars go by and workers attach parts, which they pull from stationary bins near their work station. This has worked pretty well for the past 100 years or so, but it also leads to parts redundancy – every parts station must have bolts or screws, for instance – and the process causes extra worker motion, since workers have to turn around and grab parts to put on the cars.
At Piracicaba, most of the parts for each individual vehicle – mainly the smaller parts, such as bolts and trim and small assemblies – are placed in “kits” that travel alongside the vehicle on a parallel line. You can see what one of the kits looks like from the photos at the bottom; team members at Piracicaba call this the “lunch box.” (Apologies for the low-res pictures.)
As the kit travels alongside the car, it is much easier and more efficient for workers to pluck out the right part and put it on the car. Further, the process guarantees quality; since each part is designated, the box should be empty at the end of the line, with no parts left over if every part was attached.
The process starts in what is called a “picking” area. Hyundai Piracicaba team members look at a list of parts designated for each vehicle on the assembly line. They place the appropriate parts in a kit – or “lunch box” – then place the kit on a robot-powered vehicle. This is the cool part.
The full kits are transported from the picking area to the appropriate spot on the assembly lines by automated, rolling robots. You can see them in the accompanying photos. They are little yellow guys, about the size of two large suitcases laid down on their sides. They automatically follow guides on the assembly room floor and move smartly along at a steady pace. Several robots travel at the same time around the assembly floor in a sort of orchestrated dance.
Once the robots take the kits to the correct spot on the line, the kits are transferred to the parallel conveyor belt, beginning their journey alongside their designated vehicle. The robots then motor back to the picking area to repeat the journey, again and again.
By creating the picking area, only a few team members select the correct parts, as opposed to traditional assembly lines, where every worker must pick the correct parts. This increases efficiency and speed. On the line, the parts kits travel along in front of the assembly team member at a convenient height, saving time and energy expended by the worker in searching to find the right part.
Hyundai tested the one-kit system at one of our assembly plants in Ulsan, Korea. Piracicaba represents the first full deployment of the one-kit system, making the plant not only our newest and most technologically advanced, but also a training ground for our other plants. Already, team members from our other assembly plants have traveled to Piracicaba to see the one-kit system in action and to learn about it.
The one-kit system is a good example of how, at Hyundai, we don’t limit innovation to our vehicles. We’re constantly revolutionizing and refining all of our processes that go into making the highest-quality, highest-value cars for our customers.
