September, 2020
www.us-tech.com
Page 61
Empowering the Handicapped with Semiautomated Workstations
By Nils Knepper, Senior Product Manager Modular PLC/Software, Mitsubishi Electric
quantities or complex processes. These workstations are a major part of Martinshof Werkstatt Bremen, a facility that focuses on integrating people with handicaps into the work- force.
M “Poka Yoke has empowered our
workers,” says Miriam Berger, who heads production planning at Martinshof. “We use automation to avoid mistakes that previously occurred in the production process.
anual workstations are still indispensable, especially in processes with small batch
dle third-party sensors and actua- tors.
In this case, it includes a digital
torque wrench and a system for industrial image processing. A bar- code printer is also being implement- ed, which is done easily with the PLC.
“During the design of the user
interface, Mitsubishi was very flexi- ble, and took all our requirements into account. Because many of our
employees can’t read very well, we make use of smileys and other sym- bols,” says Berger. In addition to process reliability, the Poka Yoke workstations allow other employees to easily step in and do the job. The workstations include a 10 in. (254 mm) touchscreen connected in the background to the Poka Yoke con- troller. The hardware and software solution delivers simple scalability,
convenient configuration and pro- gramming, and complete networking capabilities. Martinshof’s next goal is to
tighten the process so that it can eliminate its “buffer storage,” improving delivery times to its auto- motive customers. “The need to prevent errors
exists everywhere during production and assembly,” says Andreas Kebbel,
Continued on next page
Accepts Challenges, Delivers Results. The ultimate multi-process inspector for paramount speed, accuracy and ease of use.
Miriam Berger, head of production planning, Martinshof.
Everyone must be able to work together.”
Poka Yoke The Poka Yoke principle is a
Japanese-devised system to elimi- nate human error. Coupled with Mitsubishi Electric’s guided operator solutions, Martinshof reliably cre- ates high-quality products for its cus- tomers, including some of the region’s well-known automotive manufacturers. With about 2,200 employees,
Martinshof Werkstatt Bremen is one of the city’s largest employers. It is also Germany’s oldest and largest workshop for people with handicaps. The company has 500 workers dedi- cated specifically to the automotive industry and has been supplying local automakers for more than 30 years.
A long-time partner of Mitsu -
bishi Electric, Handke Indus trie- Technik developed the Poka Yoke solution in the form of an error-free workstation. Since May 2018, four identical workstations have been in use at Martinshof for automotive parts production.
Work Order Visualization The main challenge of the proj-
ect involved integrating existing technology into the error-free work- stations, according to Nils Knepper, senior product manager — modular PLC/software, Mitsubishi Electric Germany. “Thanks to the interfacing features of our Poka Yoke controller, this wasn’t a problem.” The MELSEC iQ-F series PLC,
installed onsite in a small control cabinet, is the heart of the system. This controller is configurable and manages the picking and assembly sequences. The system can also han-
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