,,Due to increasing product variation and smaller series, much of the work will remain manual in the future.’’ So says Hendri Kortman, innovation manager at VARIASS. Under his direction, the technicians were introduced to ‘paperless operator support. A pilot of research institute TNO in collaboration with VARIASS, Vekon, Confed Systems, KMWE and Block Systems. Kortman: ,,Paperless operator support is alive and well in the manufacturing industry and offers opportunities to achieve zero defect assembly in a lot of manual assembly.’’
Right the first time
Industry demands that manual work must be done right the first time. Crucial to this is optimal, preferably paperless, support for the operator during assembly. According to Kortman, experienced and inexperienced employees will have to switch faster because of the constantly changing products. This increases the risk of errors. TNO has therefore carried out a special project with five companies using projected work instructions.’
In recent years, new technologies and systems for operator support have become available. Consider, for example, electronic work instructions, augmented reality and projection. SMEs need practical knowledge on the effectiveness of these new operator support systems. TNO's pilot provides concrete solutions for this.
The meeting was held at Neopost in Drachten. The participating companies in the Knowledge Circle Manufactoring Engineering were: