Toward a New Era in U.S. Manufacturing: The Need for a National Vision

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1986-10 edition. ... precise positioning and automatic loading and unloading, is one example of the trend to develop transport equipment for small loads. Automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) for transporting individual tote boxes are also being developed, as are specially designed conveyors and monorails for tote box movement. The use of asynchronous movement in support of assembly has existed for many years. For example, asynchronous material handling systems were prevalent in automotive assembly before the paced assembly line was adopted at Ford in the early 1900s, and the concept has been applied recently in some European automotive assembly operations. In the early 1970s, Volvo began using AGVs to achieve asynchronous handling in support of job enlargement. Asynchronous material handling equipment is often used to allow a worker to control the pace of the process. The trend toward asynchronous movement appears to be partially motivated by the apparent success of Japanese electronics firms in using specially designed chain conveyors that place the control of the assembly process in the hands of the assembly operators. A workpiece is mounted on a platform or small pallet which is powered by two constantly moving chains. The platform is freed from the power chain when it reaches an operator's station. After work is completed on the workpiece, the operator connects the pallet to the chain, and it moves to the next station; if the next station has not completed its work on the previous piece, the pallets accumulate on the chain. Asynchronous alternatives include using AGVs as assembly platforms and for general transport functions; "smart" monorails for transporting parts between work stations; transporter conveyors to control and dispatch work to individual...