Low cost automation and poka yoke devices: tools for optimising production processes

Low cost automation and poka yoke philosophy assure good results when applied to manufacturing processes with a high incidence of human operators, with a low availability of time for solution implementation and with expensive effects associated with errors in executing operative procedures. Hence, their joint adoption is addressed in order to access the benefits they both guarantee. Specifically, in this paper, the case of a manufacturing line for heat exchangers is studied. Operative tools are redesigned in accordance with both low cost automation and poka yoke philosophy principles. Furthermore, since poka yoke solutions are subdivided between those preventing errors and those detecting them, the former are preferred. It emerges that LCA and poka yoke solutions adopted induce consistent improvements in the line productivity.