3.1 Process Planning and Optimization - colorizer and moving material

You have received a suggestion for improvement from an employee: The walking distances at Station_04 to the "tailgate" material are very long, even though they could be much shorter. Analyze the situation with ipolog.

To do this, first select the two workers at Station 4 and the "E-Performance Comfort_All" product in the Filter Set.

More information about the Filter Set is available here.

Open the Animation Control and select the product "E-Performance Comfort_All".

More information about the Animation Control is available here.

Perform the calculation for all products via the key combination ALT+SHIFT+R (alternatively also via the File menu under Simulation)

Tip: If the product is not yet displayed on the assembly line, use the settings option for showing/hiding the 3D components in the upper left part of the 3D viewer.

To check this, take a look at the worker paths of Station_04 in the 3D viewer. Use the Animation Control for a better visualization. Start the cycle simulation with the play button and view live how the workers walk. This shows that these paths are very inefficient.

Now check the colleague's suggestion for improvement with the Colorizer. This offers you the possibility of performing a visual (color) analysis based on various properties.

To better identify the problem, open the Colorizer and select "Worker -> Box" (Note: This option is located under the more... entry).  Now it becomes apparent that material is queued on the wrong side of the station.

The component tailgate, which is required at the left material surface of station 4, is currently located on the right side. Move the material in the Material Zone Editor to the left material surface (Station_04_ML). With the green arrow, ipolog performs the automatic setting of the material with corresponding alignment at the setting edge.

You have correctly noticed that two different tailgates are installed (10000059 and 10000060). Create space on the left side of the conveyor at station 04 by compacting the KLTs in the existing racks.

After you have placed the material on the left, recalculate the worker walking distances for your products using the familiar ALT+SHIFT+R key combination and see how much your implementation of the suggested improvement has reduced the worker walking distance.

Save your progress.