For many years, plant managers told assemblers to “work smarter, not harder” without providing them the proper tools to achieve this goal. This was especially challenging for workers who had to lift heavy objects around their workstations. Today, however, they can “lift smarter and work easier” thanks to a wide variety of state-of-the-art cranes, hoists, intelligent assist devices and work positioners.
Assemblers at one Turkish automotive plant very much welcome these tools to ease and quicken the installation of front and rear suspensions for two different auto models. Initially, each suspension was handled and installed with a pneumatic loader. But its slow speed, lack of control and difficulty adapting to several suspension weights slowed production considerably—preventing workers from meeting the required installation rate of 50 suspensions per hour.