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Specialized Health Products Inc. manufactures medical safety needles that minimize the threat of needle sticks to healthcare workers.

While electronic work instructions are not ideal for every application, new technology has made going paperless easier and more affordable.

During a recent ceremony at Lear Corp.’s Montgomery, AL, seat plant, officials received an engraved crystal award and a commemorative banner honoring ASSEMBLY magazine’s 2006 Assembly Plant of the Year.

New technologies demand well organized design-for-assembly procedures. In addition, there are different considerations for prototype assembly and production assembly, with each requiring a specific design skill set and equipment.

Most automated assembly systems are designed to make one specific product. When production of that assembly ends, the systems are scrapped or reconfigured at great expense. But, it doesn’t have to be that way.

The objective is to eliminate waste: infighting over whether lean or Six Sigma gets credit creates waste.

On the one hand, manufacturers say they are unable to find and hire workers. On the other hand, people out in the “real world” are contradicting this view.

Much has changed since Jack Kirby and his colleagues at Texas Instruments invented the integrated circuit in 1958.

Medical device manufacturers are increasingly investing in assembly robots to improve flexibility, productivity and repeatability.