Faced with increased demand for its switch-cabinet cooling units, heat exchangers, heaters and filter fans, Pfannenberg GMbH (Hamburg, Germany) had no choice but to take stock of its assembly processes in an effort to weed out inefficiencies. In doing so, it discovered a number of problems, including poorly structured processes, inadequate workstation ergonomics and insufficient facilities for deploying extra personnel to meet peak demand.
"We had to produce more, yet had no extra reserves to do so," says Pfannenberg process engineer Frank Sauer. "The system...was too complicated in structure, not accurate enough and, in terms of ergonomics, was no longer up-to-date with present-day requirements."