Rather like building shelves.
Just system-based. And with cars.
There are some people who painstakingly follow assembly instructions. Always. For instance, when buying new shelving from a well-known Swedish furniture store, they religiously follow the prescribed steps and then – with a bit of patience, luck and skill – ultimately end up with a functioning piece of furniture without having a nervous breakdown. However, there are others who tend to see instructions as recommendations, and others who never even both to look at them. And that is also okay, as the ones who adopted a more “freestyle” approach might also end up with a satisfactory result. Here at ALU-CAR – part of the csi Group – we innately belong to the “follow the instructions” group, but our team also includes representatives of the two other categories. So when it comes to shelving – but really at ALU-CAR in general, our mantra is: safely or not at all!
The big picture.
And at the same time, a love of product details
And it needs to be safe when assembling a product that is somewhat more complex than shelving. Cars, for instance. Personnel “on the line” need to know the order and where and how a component needs to be assembled or attached. Or how a component needs to be prepared before it can be assembled manually, semi-automated or even fully automated. In a case like this – that is car manufacturing – we are no longer talking about a single set of instructions containing all the assembly steps, but rather hundreds or thousands of so-called “Product Description Manual” (PDM) sheets. Even the most meticulous adherent of (assembly) instructions will reach their limits with the volume of documents that arrive in umpteen different file formats. Luckily, personnel working on the line do not have to adhere to them all, simply the sheets that relate to the components with which they are working. Nonetheless, this is very ambitious and needs a plan or a system to enable them to keep an eye on the latest version of them all. And/or our ALU-CAR experts use the VMP application to bring order to the mountain of paperwork.
Cross-departmental workflow.
Simple as never before.
If you are using VMP, the creation of new PDM sheets and the updating of existing sheets can be managed more simply than ever before and documented end to end: for instance, notifications, proposed corrections or notes can be saved directly within the VMP application, replacing any exchange by e-mail or phone.
Sheets are created in a clearly defined process:
- Creation/update of the sets of sheets
- Addition of technical guidelines for documentation and build status documentation by the manager
- Examination and, if necessary, addition of information by the designer
If these steps are followed, after approval the sheets will be published in the system and made available to personnel authorised to access them.
A specific role is assigned to every VMP user, the function of which is restricted to what is absolutely necessary. Details about who can edit, view or use the data to generate statistics from it etc. can also be defined. Different language versions can also be set up.
But although this is all very theoretical, it needs to be like this. Get in touch with us if you have a rather practical problem with PDM sheets in your company – we are sure to be able to help. With the management – and if in doubt – also with the assembly of shelves etc.
Please feel free to get in touch with us
KIMBERLY TEUTENBERG
ALU-CAR | Winterberg
K.Teutenbergalu-carde
