DEVELOPMENT OF MAN-MACHINE COOPERATIVE PRODUCTION SYSTEM - APPLICATION TO AUTOMOTIVE AIR-CONDITIONING UNIT ASSEMBLY-LINE

A highly automated production system for an automotive air-conditionin g unit, which is a manually assembled medium-large size components req uiring human wisdom and dexterity has developed. The highlighted topic s are as follows: firstly, introduction of human DFA (design for assem bly) expertise into product design; secondly, automated assembly for d ifficult parts which is beyond manual assembly efficiency by learning human assembly motion; and thirdly, introduction of a maintenance and operation system which enables the production system constantly grow e ven after start-up. As a result, the degree of automation has dramatic ally improved from 40% to 80% in the developed production system for t he blower motor assembly line, This system is recognized as an epoch-m aking production system for medium-large size products in which produc tivity improvement has been slow.