Western New York-based UTC Retail specializes in multichannel enterprise software, point of sale hardware and software, and hardware depot services. Recently the company received a large order for point-of-sale systems for a large chain of home improvement stores. In the work cell handling this order, workers take fully assembled cash registers weighing 100 lb, slide them down a conveyor to a banding station to be banded, then lift them onto shipping pallets.
Reconfiguring the? Assembly Process
Before the big order, the company was using two people to move units from the banding table to the pallets. But to meet the production needs of this larger order, they went from three full-time production employees to two assembly lines of 18 people each - all of whom are temp workers who rotate in and out of different parts of the assembly line, so they need to know how to do each part of the assembly process. The production goal was 300 units per shift, meaning one unit comes off the conveyor every three minutes.
To further increase efficiency, UTC Retail bought a Gorbel Work Station Jib Crane to move the 100 lb boxes from the banding table to the pallets, making what was once a two-person job into a one-person job.
The Gorbel Work Station Jib Crane proved to be an ideal solution. The ease of use of the jib with the vacuum lift made it perfect for this work force. With workers rotating in and out of different jobs along the production line, the company needed something that was easy to use and easy to learn.
"People pick it up within the first 15 minutes and they're off and running with it," said production supervisor Dave Lyon.
