Share this article:
By Naomi Tajitsu and Makiko Yamazaki
Tokyo: In a factory south of Toyota’s city in Japan, robots have begun to show percentages of quality inspectors’ cadests, as the pandemic accelerates Toyota’s much-vasacked “go-and-see” formula that helped revolutionize mass production in the 20th century. .
Inside Musashi Seimitsu Industry Co Ltd’s car portion factory, a robot arm selects and spins a tapered gear, gently sweeping teeth to detect surface defects.consistent with the shift.
“Inspecting 1,000 copies of the same thing day in and out requires a lot of skill and experience, but it’s not very creative,” Chief Executive Hiroshi Otsuka told Reuters. “We’d like to lose staff from those tasks.”
Global brands have long used robots in production, leaving the painstaking task of detecting defects primarily to humans. But social distancing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 prompted a rethinking of the plant.
This has encouraged increased use of robots and other quality technologies, adding remote tracking that was already followed before the pandemic.
For a chart of production robot installations, click here https://tmsnrt.rs/34yOHYz.
In Japan, such approaches are a radical replacement for the “genchi genbutsu” methodology, “go and see” evolved as a component of Toyota’s production formula and was followed by Japanese brands for decades with almost zeal.
This procedure requires staff to frequently monitor all facets of the production chain for irregularities, and has made quality control one of the last human obstacles in automated plants in a different way.
However, even at Toyota Motor Corp itself, when asked about automating more genchi genchi genbutsu procedures, a spokesperson said: “We are still looking at tactics in our production processes, adding automation processes where it makes sense.
QUALITY REQUIREMENTS
Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) have gone hand in hand with affordable equipment, but also with stricter quality needs in the customer component.
“We are seeing a gap between the quality of products manufactured on normal production lines and the quality demanded through our customers,” said Kazutaka Nagaoka, production director of Japan Display, a supplier of Apple Inc.and many automakers.
“The quality of products manufactured in automated lines is incredibly superior and more consistent.”
However, automating inspections is a challenge, given the desire to teach robots to identify tens of thousands of imaginable flaws for an express product and apply that learning instantly.
Musashi Seimitsu’s low defect rate of one consistent with 50,000 sets left the company with enough faulty examples to expand an effective AI algorithm.
But one came from Israeli businessman Ran Poliakine, who implemented the artificial intelligence and optical generation he had used in medical diagnostics on the production line.
His concept was to teach the device to detect the good, that the bad, basing the set of rules on up to a hundred very better or almost better sets, an amendment of the so-called gold sample.
“If you look at human tissue, you teach a set of rules about what’s smart and what isn’t, and you only have a moment to make the diagnosis,” he said.
‘ON STEROIDS’
Since this advance, the start-up of Poliakine, SixAI and Musashi Seimitsu, have created MusashiAI, a joint venture that develops and rents quality robots, a novelty in the field.
Consultations from automakers, spare parts suppliers and other corporations in Japan, India, the United States and Europe have quadrupled since March, when the new global coronavirus, Poliakine said.
“COVID-19 has accelerated movement. It’s all on steroids now, because fleeing house displays, remote paintings can paint,” he said.
For a table of the largest users of production robots, click here https://tmsnrt.rs/3hxNlB1.
Earlier this year, auto parts manufacturer Marelli, which has an operational headquarters in Japan and Italy, also launched AI quality inspection robots at a factory in Japan, and told Reuters last month that it was looking for AI to play a greater role in quality in the long term.Inspections. Years.
Printer manufacturer Ricoh Co Ltd plans to automate all production processes for drum sets and toner cartridges at one of its Japanese plants until March 2023.The robots are already carrying out the most of the processes and, since April, technicians have been tracking the plant’s equipment.floor of the house.
“Of course, you want to be available to compare and execute responses when disorders arise, but identity and confirmation are responsibilities that we can now carry out from home,” said Kazuhiro Kanno, general manager of Ricoh’s printer production unit.
Musashi Seimitsu might not say when he plans to have his plants fully automated, however, Otsuka said that AI complements, not threatening, the go-and-see system.
“AI doesn’t ask” Why? For what? “but humans do. We hope they’ll let them out to ask why and how the flaws happen,” he said. “This will allow more people to look for tactics for constant production, which is the purpose of ‘genchi genbutsu’.”
Reuters
Share this article:
LIO sections
Follow IOL
Learn more about IOL
Lawful
Trend in the LIO
Newspapers
© 2020 Independent Online and affiliates. All rights are reserved
Please visit the official government coronavirus data portal by clicking HERE