I priced an FR10 to unload connector housings. My colleague asked who releases the fixture, checks the housing and changes the receiving tray. Apparently my labour saving has three unpaid helpers. What should a small pilot settle first?
Follow one ordinary order through the current job before borrowing a robot. Include those three tasks and the interruptions. You're trying to find a chunk of work that can actually move away from your colleague, not make the arm look busy.
We already have a shift sheet, but it only counts finished housings. Doesn't show who clears the fixture. I'll ask for an observation with that included.
I once timed unloading as the seconds between picking up a part and putting it down. The operator politely let me finish, then showed me the fixture cleaning, the awkward part she put aside and the tray she had to fetch from another room. My little timing wasn't false; it just wasn't the job.
Keep a whole order visible, including the last few housings. If a proposed pilot needs somebody standing there doing the omitted work, give that person a name in the staffing plan and count their time. They do not become free because the robot is in the photograph.
Colleague agreed to the observation, provided it doesn't become an unofficial extra shift. Fair condition. Supervisor has to arrange cover before we do it.
Luis, yes to the full order, but I'd still break out the tasks inside it; Anil needs to know whether one expensive exception is hiding an otherwise useful option.
Include where suspect housings go. A tidy output tray can conceal a little reject pile that someone else spends the afternoon sorting. Quality needs to own that decision in the pilot.
Henry, only the gripper. Fixture release wasn't in my quote. Daniel, quality currently takes the suspect ones at the bench, so that handoff belongs in the observation too.
Supervisor arranged cover and we observed an order. Unloading was brief; release and cleaning kept bringing my colleague back. I've withdrawn the staffing saving and asked for a fixture-inclusive concept, not a robot trial date.
Fixture work was the repeated interruption. Two suspect housings went to quality together. Thanks Luis, the whole-order view caught the cleaning that my original timing never saw.
That's enough to stop using the old saving. Whether a redesigned fixture earns its cost is another question, and your colleague shouldn't have to fund the answer with spare time.