Autonomation

Autonomation is a process of quality control that aims to accomplish the following four goals.

Detect a problem.

Stop the production of the machine.

Correct fault or problem.

And investigate the root cause, and install countermeasure.

Autonomation is described in the article as the addition of a human element to an automated piece of machinery. With regards to Lean Manufacturing it lets operations to operate independently from human input. Leaving the human to operate multiple tasks.

The problem occurs when defects are made and go unnoticed by the operator for a while. The Autonomation should stop the process before there are too many defects produced.

Some use the terms automation and Autonomation interchangeably, but there are some key differences that have to be identified so that there are no misunderstandings.

Automation is the employment of machines to do the work of people. Autonomation is similar in that human features of intelligence are given to machinery so that the machines can detect their own problems rather than having to have the constant supervision of a worker.

Autonomation was developed by of the founder of Toyota Industries Corp., Sakichi Toyoda. The textile company before they got into automobiles. He invented an automatic loom that would stop anytime a thread broke. This allowed a production to stop before there was a large amount of defects produced.

As recently as the 70’s this was a dream for manufacturers to detect faults automatically. Now Autonomation has been incorporated in many manufacturing processes and is a key ingredient in quality control.

Some of the key points that Autonomation follow in lean manufacturing are the reduction of waste by finding defects early. By the ability to stop production in the event of a quality issue by using limit stops, or proximity switches, or other mechanisims to detect production abnormalities. Train staff to recognize problems and to fix issues as they arise. Also take...