Shop Floor Work Instructions
Traditionally, shop floor work instructions are created manually within a CAD environment as part of the workflow, reducing the amount of time spent on actual design engineering tasks. Then,when there is a change in the design or the manufacturing process, the affected documents would need to be manually recreated, resulting in additional time spent on non-engineering functions.
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What are Work Instructions (WI)?
A set of Step-by-step instructions distributed to shop floor workstations and production assembly lines. They describe the operations, processes and rules - including tools required - to complete a particular stage of the assembly process.
They are generally presented as a hierarchical or structured list, broken down into specific steps - each level presenting the information required in a number of ways, often including a combination of text, photographs, technical documentation and other specifications.
The complexity of the work instructions is determined by a number of factors, depending on the range of products, people and processes involved, as well as the human interaction with the machines used in the assembly process
The efficiency of the work instructions has a significant impact on the performance of the business and it's ability to get the products out into the market place in a timely manner.
How are they produced?
They can be produced manually, semi-automatically or automatically.
Manual methods include the use of tools like PowerPoint or Word, to produce a document containing digital images, explanatory notes, as well as technical information. If the information in the instructions changes, it is often a laborious task to update all the affected information.
Automatic or Semi-Automatic production is often achieved using tools which are part of a PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) or PDM (Product Data Management) strategy. These tools allow a number of sources of information to be combined to produce the work instructions, some of these are as below:
CAD design data
Digital Mock up data
Product structure and evolution
Process workflow
Bills of Materials
ERP
What are the Challenges for Work instructions?
Manual techniques are time consuming to put together, and require a large amount of time to maintain and update to reflect changes. They are sometimes ambiguous and can be miss-interpreted, due to the fact that they are made up of static images and text.
Automatic and semi-Automatic Techniques have traditionally been difficult to set up, requiring the data from the PLM systems described above to be set into a specific format so that these systems can incorporate it into their output - again not providing an easy route for getting updated data to the shop-floor.
What is the future for Work Instructions?
3DVia Composer Product Introduction is a revolutionary technology that allows the creation of dynamic electronic work instructions using 3D CAD data. For more information on 3DVia and to discuss your requirements Call Us on 01332 813340 or enquire on-line.