SEW USOCOME hosted MODAPTO’s 1st Technical Meeting

The consortium was given a tour of Usocome’s assembly plant, during which they were presented the gear motor value stream. The tour began at the loading bay, where Usocome’s representatives demonstrated the supply chain between the component factories (production plants in Haguenau and Forbach) and the assembly plant. The MODAPTO Consortium was informed that this supply chain has been optimized by the standardization of packaging within Usocome’s transport system (600x400mm containers) which manages the continuity between data flow and physical flow. Later on, the tour followed the assembly flow: from the picking of components for a gear motor, through to assembly, with its numerous operations required to assemble each gear motor according to the individual specifications of each customer. It concluded to inspection, painting and packaging operations. During the visit, the team had the chance to discuss the general concepts of Sew Usocome:

• transport between assembly stages carried out by AVGs (manufactured in-house) eliminating the need to handle heavy loads;
• information on manual workstations transmitted individually to each one
• the modularity of current resources, enabling them to harmonize assembly processes and thus offer a high degree of flexibility to the manufacturer’s employees;
• giving employees access to real-time indicators to balance work rhythms and optimize flow performance;
• field management to deal with issues and take on board ideas for improvement, as well as communicating results and prospects for the small factory and the plant.

Moreover, the meeting run though other issues, such as the evolution of Usocome  equipment:

• old equipment organized according to the DMS (Dedicated Manufacturing System) concept;
• current equipment organized according to the FMS (Flexible Manufacturing System) concept;
• equipment under study for the REDG project, based on the RMS (Reconfigurable Manufacturing System) concept;

The visit ended with a presentation of a specialized software platform, which centralizes indicators and enables management to control the entire plant.