smorgasbord
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Cool video - I'm surprised there's so much hand work, but there is some automation, particularly around the QA portions, which is great to see:
Watch a TS-60 being made
- Thread starter smorgasbord
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mino
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Good one.
Using people allows flexibility. When demand is high, mutliple lines can churn out the tool. Once the sales settle, the same lines are making other stuff. With automated robotic setup, the line is more likely to be either underutilised or capacity limited most of the time. Making some tools by a robotic line while others are made manually for surge capacity is a big no-no for QA.
Automation works great when making lots of same, or similar at a reasonably predictable volume over time. I do not believe either is the case for Festool. Also, having people has value on itself. You will not see a robot using experience to figure out something new ..
I presume automation is just not worth it even for the TS60. It could not justify the whole line only "for itself". Plus there is the elephant in the room with demand fluctuating heavily.smorgasbord said:
Using people allows flexibility. When demand is high, mutliple lines can churn out the tool. Once the sales settle, the same lines are making other stuff. With automated robotic setup, the line is more likely to be either underutilised or capacity limited most of the time. Making some tools by a robotic line while others are made manually for surge capacity is a big no-no for QA.
Automation works great when making lots of same, or similar at a reasonably predictable volume over time. I do not believe either is the case for Festool. Also, having people has value on itself. You will not see a robot using experience to figure out something new ..
Very cool video! I'd be interested to see some other tools being made, like the Domino.
I can see why a lot of the assembly is done by hand. Creating a robot for that complicated of an assembly is very costly, and they probably don't have the demand to justify it.
I can see why a lot of the assembly is done by hand. Creating a robot for that complicated of an assembly is very costly, and they probably don't have the demand to justify it.
Festool would need a lot of robots to do all of that assembly. The amount of pick-and-place operations and the various end effector tooling needed boggles the mind. This is a circumstance where people are far more efficient, and faster, than robots. As has been noted, flexibility is easier to accomplish with people. When volume is high you add people to the line. If demand slows down you can just use fewer operators but with each doing more steps in the process. The extra folks can go where demand is higher.
Festool uses some very sophisticated and modern machines for manufacturing component, pretty much the opposite of Starrett as observed in a different thread, but the skilled folks are the assemblers who also act as in-process inspectors.
Festool uses some very sophisticated and modern machines for manufacturing component, pretty much the opposite of Starrett as observed in a different thread, but the skilled folks are the assemblers who also act as in-process inspectors.
