PROJECT: VIBRATORY FEEDER BOWLS
Challenge: Vibratory bowl feeders are low-cost mechanisms used to feed components into an assembly machine, but are also notoriously unreliable and unpredictable. I was tasked with understanding the intricacies of this technology and improving the process reliability for the equipment in order to meet our target launch volumes and achieve a successful start up.
Process: In this role I acted as a hub between manufacturing, engineering, and product partners to successfully start up this equipment. I first began by doing a deep dive into the technology to understand the different variables that could be changed to improve performance. In addition, I worked closely with the vendor to implement a more standardized manufacturing and equipment acceptance process. After running multiple tests to understand the effects of the different parameters and implementing more stringent acceptance requirements, I was able to determine optimal parameter ranges for subsequent systems.
Results: I improved reliability on our vibratory feeder bowls, which allowed us to meet our target launch volumes.