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Strategy for availability improvement

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Abstract

The successful economic exploitation of automatic assembly equipment is strongly dependent on the output of the machines and thus on a high level of availability. Hence to exploit the high investment, necessary for such equipment the availability must be at as high a level as possible. A survey of about 40 assembly lines with respect to weak points in the assembly equipment has revealed that there is a breakdown on average every 2.11 minutes. Consequently there is the need for operators to clear the faults in order to obtain a satisfactory availability. With existing machinery it is impossible to operate an automatic line without some manual supervision. Based on this experience the paper outlines strategies for planning, start-up and operating assembly lines to produce very high availability. These strategies are described in the paper and illustrated by examples from field experiences.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IFA, Institut für Fabrikanlagen, Universitat Hannover, Callinstrasse 36, 3000, Hannover 1, West Germany

    H. -P. Wiendahl & U. Winkelhake

Authors
  1. H. -P. Wiendahl
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  2. U. Winkelhake
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Wiendahl, H.P., Winkelhake, U. Strategy for availability improvement. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 1, 69–78 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02601461

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02601461

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