ABSTRACT
In 1986, the company placed third among Japanese companies in the number of proposals per person. The author's company gave bookstore certificates as awards for unimplemented proposals or elementary-level implemented proposals. Some people praised their kaizen proposals, finding machines safer and easier to use. A series of presses stamped parts as a preliminary process. The stamped parts were placed on trays and the trays were moved along an auxiliary line onto a main line conveyor for further processing. The problem was that the detector "lied," indicating that parts were left behind when they were not, or that parts were picked up when in fact some were left behind. Working together, our team devised a new system that used a photoelectric switch to detect when the pieces were picked up. This new detector was connected to a display panel with one light for the position of each piece on the tray.
