Creating jobs has been a hot topic these days in the weak global economy. Many answers are out there, but innovation is a proven engine to the economy as shown by Apple who created or supported over 500,000 jobs for U.S. workers in the Apple economy through innovation.
In our space of manufacturing, I’ve seen encouraging examples of successful companies creating jobs through innovation too.
Founded in 1976, Yaris began producing tractor cabs in a 1,000 m2 area in Turkey. Following the technology development and commitment to quality in the past 36 years, the company today operates on over 250,000 m2 working area with over 1,000 employees. Now Yaris has become the leading cab producer in Europe, exporting 70% of its product overseas.
Yaris had several challenges on their shop floor before:
- Need to accurately and instantly pick and install 60 to 80 part groups out 450 groups for customized orders
- Construction machinery assembly steps are intensely complex to explain and understand
- Customer’s cab projects require the installation guide, repair instructions, and spare part catalogs delivered all together.
In 2009, Yaris started implementing 3DVIA Composer and has witnessed tremendous progress in the past three years as shown in this Yaris shop floor video.
- They assigned each assembly procedure with an assembly station number and a bar code on the routing sheet.
- Say I’m an assembly line worker at station 4 and I just need to scan the bar code for my station. Then my job specification is clearly populated and explained on the touch screen with detailed graphical steps.
- I can switch to the exploded views with a part list. I can also refer to the 3D models. With multi-touch gestures, I can interrogate the model easily while with traditional assembly instructions embedded with photos, there was no way to explore a different perspective.
- Yaris even integrated the tightening torque specification required for all fixtures and the tools needed for each job.
- The best part is all the information is digital and up to date. You don’t have to worry about the design team releasing the 7th revision while the procurement purchasing according to the 5th version BOM and manufacturing team producing based on the 3rd draft.
Now Yaris is able to cut technical documentation time by 13%, improve the quality of our technical communication, and provide assembly line workers instant access to 2,000 parts in 450 groups.
Dr. Kayhan Çalişkan, Project Manager at Yaris shared his experience: “While initially deployed to improve the quality of our complicated installation and repair manuals, 3DVIA Composer has also enabled us to improve the proficiency and efficiency of our assembly line workers.”
Remember this is not just talking. Yaris shop floor video proudly shows the world that Digital Manufacturing is now the reality. Unleashing the power of the 3D CAD data treasure, 3DVIA Composer along with several hundred dollars for a touch screen and a bar code scanner makes a digital shop floor commercially viable.
If Yaris can do it, why can’t we do it? Why can’t we create more jobs through innovation like Yaris?
The coming blogs will share more examples of innovative manufacturing businesses and how best-in-class companies achieve outstanding performance.
For more information on 3DVIA Composer, click on the images below to view 3DVIA Composer videos:
1) First Look at 3DVIA Composer Video
2) 3DVIA Composer User Manual video series (registration required):
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