Assembly Planbook - April 2008 - (Page 12) Assembly Lines New facilities Mergers orecasts Last Call for Plant of the Year Nominations BENSENVILLE, IL—There’s still time to enter the 5th annual Assembly Plant of the Year contest sponsored by ASSEMBLY magazine. Any assembly plant in the United States is eligible. Has the plant taken steps to reduce production costs? Have new or improved assembly processes resulted in increased productivity? All applications are due by the end of this month. Inventions Quality Measurement Conference 2008 BENSENVILLE, IL—Set for April 28-May 1, this year’s Quality Measurement Conference (formerly MMCW) will take place at the Marriott Suites Clearwater Beach facility on Sand Key in Clearwater, FL, and marks the event’s 10th anniversary. Organized by ASSEMBLY magazine’s sister publication Quality Magazine, the 2008 conference will include a two-day workshop featuring a number of 50-minute workshops and presentations on a variety of different measurement issues and strategies. Complementing these presentations will be keynote speakers, and a number of equipment suppliers showcasing their products and services through a series of tabletop exhibits. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to get a behindthe-scenes look at the Lockheed Martin MS2 Tactical Systems facility in nearby Oldsmar, FL. The plant’s award winning quality program includes producibility and testability evaluations for its customers and design agents; supply chain management; material requirements planning; electronic manufacturing and testing; Following a weak 2006, the North American robotics industry came back strong in 2007, with a 24 percent increase in orders. Photo courtesy KUKA Robotics Corp. North American Robot Orders Jump 24 Percent ANN ARBOR, MI—After a weak 2006, North American-based robotics companies saw orders to North American manufacturing companies rise 24 percent in 2007, with especially strong sales to the automotive industry. According to a report released by the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), this past year North American manufacturing companies ordered a total of 15,856 robots valued at $1.07 billion. When sales to companies outside North America are included, the totals rise to 17,261 robots worth approximately $1.15 billion “We’re obviously very pleased to see strong growth in 2007, especially following the 30 percent decline in 2006,” says Åke Lindqvist, chairman of RIA’s statistics committee. “Most of the growth last year resulted from sales to automotive manufacturers and their suppliers. In this market segment, which accounted for 64 percent of all orders, robot sales in North America rose 43 percent.” On the down side, orders to nonautomotive manufacturers, which represented approximately 36 percent of all orders, remained flat, increasing a disappointing one percent. “The robotics industry’s future expansion depends upon reaching more nonautomotive customers, and we still have a long way to go,” Lindqvist says. “However, we are encouraged by a 16 percent gain in sales to life sciences, pharmaceutical and biomedical customers, and an 8 percent increase in sales to food and consumer goods companies.” For more on the report, visit www.roboticsonline.com. 12 ASSEMBLY / April 2008 www.assemblymag.com There’s still time to enter your favorite manufacturing facility in ASSEMBLY magazine’s 2008 plant of the year contest. The goal of the Assembly Plant of the Year award is to identify a state-of-the-art facility that has applied world-class processes to reduce production cost, increase productivity, shorten time to market or improve product quality. Previous recipients of the award have included Kenworth Truck Co. (Renton, WA), Lear Corp. (Montgomery, AL), Square D/Schneider Electric (Lexington, KY) and Xerox Corp. (Webster, NY). An online nomination form is available at www.assemblymag. com. All nominations will be evaluated by a group of outside experts and ASSEMBLY’s editorial staff, based on criteria such as: Have assembly processes been improved through the use of new technology? Has the plant improved its performance by making more effective use of existing technology? http://www.roboticsonline.com http://www.assemblymag.com
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