Both Lear Corp. and Hyundai Motor Manufacturing have found a manufacturing home in Montgomery, AL. Lear operates a plant that makes and delivers automotive seats to the nearby Hyundai plant for just-in-time (JIT) installation. About two hours before the seats need to be installed, Lear receives a live broadcast of the exact production sequence and seat model requirements from Hyundai. The Lear plant, which won the ASSEMBLY Plant of the Year award, builds about 56 distinct SKUs.
Rather than rest on its laurels, Lear desired greater visibility, accuracy, and increased continuous flow with Hyundai. Integrated Systems Design was engaged by Lear to assist due to its proven experience with Tier 1 automotive manufacturers and suppliers. ISD enabled greater visibility by integrating RFID-based tracking technology into the manufacturing and shipping processes. A read-only RFID tag is attached to each seat. An RFID antenna is located at each quality assurance station to read RFID chips embedded in the seat build fixtures.
Each of the plant’s four assembly lines features a nonsynchronous looping conveyor with timed stops at each workstation. The conveyor is linked to a PC-based quality assurance system that monitors seat assembly and verifies proper sequencing. As a seat set moves down the conveyor, the quality assurance system electronically displays instructions for workstation operators to provide positive seat identification and data tracking. The system then receives various tool, equipment, and operator inputs and determines whether a seat assembly or component passes or fails. Defective seats are automatically routed to a repair station.
After a seat set passes inspection, it is wrapped in a plastic bag, labeled with a bar code. The ASRS sequences all seat sets in reverse broadcast order prior to loading on a semitrailer. This ensures that each set is delivered in the correct sequence to the assembly line when the appropriate vehicle reaches the seat-install workstations.
Each semitrailer holds 54 pallets, which are automatically loaded on a semitrailer in less than 1 minute. Sequence information is noted on the outbound RFID and checked by Hyundai prior to unloading to the assembly line.
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