American Leather Upholstery/Final Assembly Workstation Redesign

Shrijan ShresthaUkesh Chawal

Indra Poudel

Founder/CEO Bob Duncan American Leather was founded in 1990 Revolutionary idea: “ Custom leather furniture

could be made and shipped in three weeks or less.”

“just-in-time” Manufacturing From a small four person shop, the company

has grown into a thriving leader in the furniture industry, with over 130 different collections sold in over 650 stores

The factory, based just outside of Dallas, Texas

Introduction

Redesign comfort sleeper upholstery/final assembly workstation to make employee more efficient.

Increase productivity by 10% Factors to consider:

◦ material flow◦ material handling◦ work station location in relation to steps in

upholstery process.

Objective

Value Stream Map

Manufactures Comfort Sleeper Comfort Sleeper

◦ Couch with sleep system◦ Can be converted into bed

Work Stations Involved:◦ Sewing Upholstery◦ Sub-Assembly Assembly◦ Deluxing Packaging

Line 6

Bed Type Version Bed Size Bed Height

Foam V3 KH LL

Plush/Premier V5 KS HL

Gel Sleeper QP  

Temperpudic V6 QS  

    FS  

    TS  

    CS  

Type Of Beds

Focal Point

Upholstery 24 Workstations

One worker per station

worker uses the upholstery table to put the leather and fabric into the frame and then staple it together

Cycle Time: 40 minutes per order

 

Sub-Assembly 2 Sub Assembly Station

2 workers per station

Sub assembler puts the frames and mattress together to make a bed

Cycle Time: 11.72 minutes

Final Assembly 6 Final Assembly

One Assembler per Station

Assembler assembles Frames from upholstery and Bed from sub assembly station

Cycle Time: 19.2 minutes

Process Flow

Flow ChartUpholstery

Assembler

WIP on conveyor belt

Sub-Assembly

Bed In Transfer Cart

Final Assembly

Is bed Available

Order for bed

Yes

NO

Walking Time and Distance

Lack of Sequencing

High WIP

Problems

Walking Time and Distance

41 trips/ day (Sub-Assembler)

Time traveled by sub – assembler = 1.03 min / trip (42.23 min/day)

Distance traveled = 68.4m/trip (2804.4 m/day)

25 trips/day (Assembler)

Time traveled by Assembler = 1.10 min/ trip (27.50 min/day)

Distance Traveled = 58.8m/trip

(1470 m/day)

Lack Of Sequencing Lack of Systematic

Ordering

Frames were completed and are placed in the conveyer belt but the beds were missing causing assembler to work on next WIP on conveyer belt

High WIP

There were a lot of WIP in the moving cart

Total space covered by WIP is 2786.62 square ft.

Barcode System of Ordering using MS Excel

Replacement of the upholstery table with modified transfer carts

Proposed Solution

Barcode System

Barcode System DesignedVersion Bed Type Bed Size Bed Height Barcode

V6 Temp KS LL

V6 Gel TS HL

V3 Foam QS

Sleeper Foam FS

V5 Plush CS

How It Works

Upholstery Table VS Cart

Modification on Carts Wheel Lock

• Replacement of the regular wheels with lock wheels

Before and After

Before After• Time saved• Space of WIP saved• More Sequenced

For Sub Assembler, Total # of bed assembled = 41 beds per day Total time saved = 41 * 1.03 = 42.23 min per day Total time required for assembling the beds= 480 – 42.23 = 437.77

min = 7.29 hrs. (instead of regular 8 hrs.)

Similarly for Final Assembler, Total time required for assembling the beds = 480 – 27.5 = 452.5 min

= 7.54 hrs. (instead of regular 8 hrs.)

Data Analysis After Solution

For Sub-Assembler, ( Wage/ hr. = $11)

Total expenditure for four employees in 8 hrs. = 4 * 8 * $11 = $352 per shift Total expenditure for four employees in 7.29 hrs. = 4 * 7.29 * $11 = $320.76 per shift Total amount saved = $352 - $320.76 = $31.24 per shift

= $62.48 per day = $1374.56 per month = $16,494.72 per year

Similarly for Assembler, ( Wage/ hr. = $11)

Total amount saved = $528 - $497.64 = $30.36 per shift = $60.72 per day = $1335.84 per month = $16,030.08 per year

Total saving per year = $32,524.8

Cost Analysis

Cost of one wheel lock = $42 Total cost of wheel lock for 24 upholstery = $4,032 Total cost of the flat screen monitor = 2 * $500 = $1000 Total cost = $5,032

Calculated savings per year = $32,524.8 Total amount saved per month = $2,710 Payback Period = 2 months.

Pay Back Period

For Sub-Assembly, After the solution, In 7.29 hrs. was needed to assemble 164 beds

Before the solution, In 7.29 hrs. total number of beds assembled = 7.29*164/8 = 150 beds

Therefore, extra number of beds = 164 – 150 = 14 beds Hence, Productivity = 14/150*100=9.33%

Similarly For Assembler,

Productivity = 9/141*100= 6.4%

Productivity

People• COO of American Leather • Manager• Employee

Final Assembler Sub Assembler Upholstery employee Material handler

Materials• Measuring Tape• Stop Watch• Laser tape

Information• Problem Solving Tools• Cad layout• Distance Travelled• Cycle Time• Production Rate

Equipment• Fork Lift• Moving Cart• Tools (Screw, Hammer, Hydraulic Tightening, Nuts) • Computers• Flat Screen Television

Energy

• Electricity

• Hydraulic

Realistic Constraints ECONOMIC• Amount saved = $32,524.8 per year • Save Expenditure

ENVIRONMENTAL• Trash can recommended • Spare parts Handling

SOCIAL• Role of workers and the managers

POLITICAL• Convenient management

ETHICAL• As an engineer, we are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity.

Engineers must perform under a standard of professional behavior that requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct.

• Contract with American Leather.

HEALTH AND SAFETY• Health factors were considered

MANUFACTURABILITY• Engineers helps to manufacture more products.• Increase in productivity

SUSTAINABILITY• Will help American Leather to compete with others in future

Realistic Constraints

Course Title Knowledge and skills acquired that were used in this projectIE 1105 Introduction to Industrial Engineering Lab

 PowerPoint presentation and deliver an oral report.

IE 2305 Computer Applications in Industrial Engineering Lab 

Programming in Excel and prepare the bar code.

IE 3301 

IE 3314

Engineering ProbabilityEngineering Research Methods

 

EXCEL for performing descriptive statistics

IE 3312 Economics for Engineers 

Payback period, Financial summary.

IE 3315  Operations Research I 

Networking Problems, Shortest Path

IE 3343 Metrics and Measurement 

Time study , Work Design

IE 4303 Production and Inventory Control 

Work In Progress (WIP), Productivity, Cycle time (CT), Just in time (JIT) 

IE 4308 Statistical Quality Control 

Process diagnosis, capability and improvement of the system.

 

IE 4343  Facilities Planning and Design 

Analyze flow, space, and activity relationships with impact to material handling and design layout alternatives

 

IE 4344 Human Factors Engineering 

Measure and understand human capacities for work, table design and physical movements

 

IE 4350 Industrial Engineering Capstone Design 

Design Project , Professional ethical responsibility and contemporary issues

 

IE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Initial investment was $5,032 and the payback period is 2 months.

Total area saved is 2786.62 square ft. The total amount of money saved is $32,524.8

per year Total time saved by a worker is 42.23 min per day

in the sub – assembly section while in the final assembly section is 27.5 min per day.

Conclusion and Summary

UTA faculty members

American Leather

Mentor and Instructor Dr. K.J Rogers

Acknowledgement