The World Class Manufacturing solution in the Fiat Chrysler Automenses system (Part 2)

In order for the method to work, it is necessary to provide innovative, frontier tools. One of these is the exoskeleton. This is a kind of intelligent armor, which helps the worker in the most difficult and tiring jobs. Exoskeletons were equipped last year and on an experimental basis with some of the most critical workstations of the Melfi plant.

General Motors, Ford and Audi are also producing exoskeletons : last year the market was only 300 million, but it is expected that in 2023 it should grow to 9 billion . For Massone «we must also take into account the fact that the average age of workers in the automotive sector is currently over 50 years. The exoskeleton is a solution to face the aging of the personnel». Furthermore, in the Research & Innovation area there is the Ergonomics Laboratory. Ergonomics, in FCA, means “creating an ecosystem in which machines, digital systems and individuals cooperate to obtain results. This entails the merger, according to Spada, between the real environment of industrial plants and the virtual one for the design of preventive workstations with optimal ergonomics.

The preventive ergonomics is “applied during the design phase, in order to anticipate the problems that could arise during the process”; but for the continuous improvement the reactive approach is also applied, used to “correct” and optimize existing systems. The laboratory, is composed of 8infrared cameras hanging from the ceiling, two displays worn on the head and 3 workstations.

The room is characterized by the absence of windows and objects that could reflect light, to avoid any kind of interference with the cameras. Workers’ processes and tasks can be reproduced to evaluate, says Spada, productive and ergometric indices. But many are the tools that FCA is implementing to support the method. “For example – says Massone – new Ags “. These (automated guided vehicles) are mobile workbenches, normally laser-guided, that communicate with the machines, interact with the environment and retrieve and transport the components for assembly. And, continues Massone, “new gluing systems, to associate very different materials, such as metals and carbon fiber”.

These and many others are the innovations that the WCM brought to FCA, first in Emea, and then spread to the rest of the world, to create a network shared by all and a language in which every employee, from the operator to the manager, can recognize himself. with the awareness of having at heart the technological and organizational innovation that with the WCM tools and methods allow us to pursue pursuing new challenges on the path of continuous improvement.

Productivity and Quality Office