Managing Product Variation Expansion

World class companies are designing more product variation into manufacturing production lines than ever before. In parallel, these same companies are continuously improving, and rearranging, their lines utilizing lean manufacturing tools. For example, in the passenger car market, automotive manufacturers are assembling trucks and sedans on the same assembly line without requiring separate lines or factories for each model.

This strategy provides a strong competitive advantage by increasing Return on Investment (ROI) through higher capital utilization and assembly line productivity. The disadvantage is that the operators on the line are now confronted with the requirement of assembling more part variation without sacrificing either quality or productivity.

Light Guide Systems™ (LGS) can help solve both problems by utilizing the pre-programmed database to guide an operator through the assembly steps for each product variant while simultaneously measuring productivity. Since confirmation is required that the quality standards were achieved after each assembly step, Light Guide Systems™ allows manufacturers to safely introduce increasing levels of product variation to their lines without the need to install dedicated, capital intensive capacity that is not fully utilized.