System Integration
Filling the Gap
To keep up with production demands, project managers at John Deere Davenport Works (Davenport, Ia.) were seeking new methods to shorten production time while improving product quality. Deere's Davenport plant manufactures construction equipment in a five-step process beginning with cutting steel, then robotically welding, machining, painting, and assembling it.
Listen to the music
The cacophony of implementation can obscure the original control and automation score. People may realize they've reached that point soon after the newest band member gathers enough gumption to ask, "Why are we doing it this way?" Now that change is the only constant, everyone knows better than to respond with the classic refrain: "That's the way we've always done it.
AlliedSignal buying Honeywell for $14 billion
Morristown, N.J., and Minneapolis, Minn.- AlliedSignal Inc. agreed June 7 to purchase Honeywell Inc. in a stock merger valued at approximately $14 billion. The deal, already unanimously approved by both companies' boards, is expected to create a $25-billion company with $45 billion in market capitalization.
Examples of Common Nonrandom Patterns Occurring in Shewhart-type Charts
E valuating chart patterns is part of Six Sigma training. The following are some common nonrandom patterns that may occur on Shewhart-type control charts. These nonrandom patterns may be used as a basis for control chart interpretation and/or establishing test runs to determine out-of-control conditions. Source: Control Engineering with data from Motorola Mixture patterns: This pattern is indicated when the plotted points tend to fall near the control limits, with relatively few points near the center line. A mixture pattern is caused by two or more overlapping distruibutions generating the process output.
Pagers Built to Order
T o reduce cycle times and improve quality, Motorola Inc. (Schaumburg, Ill.) decided to change its pager manufacturing process to meet customer request for specialized pagers, that could be produced efficiently and cost effectively. Using design for Six Sigma (6s) techniques, Motorola was able to meet external and internal customer requirements. Motorola's Fusion factory can process different pagers with different circuit boards on the same production line.
Structured programming for Quantum PLCs
As a system integrator I suppose I should love relay ladder logic. It lets me write long strings of code with no apparent structure which only I can maintain and extend. There is no greater sense of job security than knowing that clients must call me back in any time something goes wrong with the code.