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Customer
Harvard Cherokee, LLP
Application
Telecommunications industry assembly/ manufacturing operations.
Harvard
Cherokee manufactures Alcatel Litespan 2000 telecommunications
cabinets for Southwestern Bell Communications (SBC). The Litespan
cabinets are digital-analog converters and relay systems designed to
operate in outdoor environments. The cabinets convert digital signals
from fiber-optic carriers to analog signals carried on copper lines.
They are the basic framework that allows SBC to offer broadband
connectivity including Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) to its
customers. This connectivity in turn provides SBC's customers with
high-speed Internet access. In the rapidly changing world of
telecommunications, Harvard knew it needed a reliable, fast, scalable
assembly operation.
The Situation
Harvard Manufacturing Texas, an Austin based company specializing in
value-added distribution as well as Engineering, Furnish, and Installs
of telecommunications equipment, desired a location in the Dallas area
for expansion. The company had an empty building and needed to become
operational in a short amount of time. Harvard's plans specified
that the empty facility had to be operational in 37 days. "In
order to satisfy the customer, we had to be up and running in a short
amount of time. The timeframe was very critical to our success,"
said Bud Davis, Harvard Cherokee's Engineering Manager.
The Desired Solution
Harvard wanted to implement efficient assembly processes and meet an
aggressive schedule. "We're currently geared to assemble more
than 1,250 Litespan cabinets a year," said Harvard's Operations
Manager Marcus Fechenbach. "But this year, we'll double
our output." This meant that the company needed a scalable,
flexible assembly operation able to handle the anticipated higher
workload.
One of the goals of the design was to
avoid a second working shift. "We'd much rather focus on one,
very efficient shift than deal with a second one," Fechenbach
said. "It's just more effective to handle the same workload in
a single shift. We needed an operation that allowed us to do the work
without the additional shift."
 The
Solution Implemented
Harvard
uses a central assembly lane fed by subassembly lanes on both sides
for the Litespan Cabinets. The cabinets are rolled down the line on
high capacity dollies between two rows of storage
racks. The racks are equipped with gravity
carton flow track on the lower level. Channel banks, fuse panels,
rectifiers and other assembly components are fed from both sides of
the central lanes by sub-assembly lines. In total there are seven work
cells on the line, and each cell requires about 90 minutes to
complete. Workers along the assembly line are protected from pallets
or boxes that could potentially fall into their work area by safety
netting that was installed along the backside of higher-level
pallet positions.
The side subassembly lines are on
Hytrol gravity
conveyors, allowing workers to easily move product to various
stages of completion. The conveyors are laid out to allow the shortest
possible distance between the subassembly area and the flow racks.
Overhead rail
systems support tool
balancers, making the subassembly process much more efficient and
ergonomical.
Details are vital, and much of the
process is focused on making sure things are tested and properly
packaged to be easy for the field technicians who will eventually have
to work on the Litespan units. For instance, Harvard stresses details
like the need to clip plastic bundle ties so that there are no sharp
edges present inside the cabinets, since technicians must frequently
access the interior of the cabinets.
 The
results
Cisco-Eagle and
Harvard worked together to create the operational system in just 37
days from initial contact to completed installation. The manufacturing
system is able to easily handle Harvard's current workflow, and will
be able to accommodate the projected doubling of production.
The company's business partners took
notice of many of the ways that Harvard designed its assembly
processes and are redesigning facilities to take advantage of the
methods and equipment Harvard employed in its operations.
"We really had a timeframe
issue," said Harvard's Fechenbach. "It meant a lot to us
that the various elements could be put into place so quickly. We were
also impressed with the wide variety of products and services
Cisco-Eagle has to offer. Cisco-Eagle accepted a large portion of the
workload which allowed my staff to concentrate on the other numerous
aspects of making a start-up venture fully operational"
For
More information
Email
us, or call 888-877-3861
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