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The Lean Ranger Rides Again, Episode Five: The Terminator & The Comeback King

By Luke - February 2, 2006 3:44 PM

"In the future, Skynet, a computer system, fights a losing war against the humans who built it and who it nearly exterminated. Just before being destroyed, Skynet sends a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah, the mother to be of John Connor, the Leader of the human resistance." *

...and we all know how that one turned out. Oh, and the robots used in The Terminator ? They were built by Yaskawa Electric, one of the companies we're visiting today.

Tuesday, January 24th

Yaskawa Electric's highest profile product is not a hit man from the future, but the Motoman robot, a versatile unit that's been welding, painting and performing in dangerous industrial environments since 1978. Seeing a Motoman is not unusual - seeing one Motoman building another Motoman is just plain surreal.

The final assembly line at Yaskawa does not have much for the seeker of Lean, but may have some lessons for those considering using robots. Here robots are used to pick, hold and fasten heavy components while their human coworkers attach, adjust and test smaller components.

Our guide, Mr. Tsuka, explained that the division of work elements on the assembly line is strictly defined. It makes sense, in a way. What better way to keep your robot programming skills sharp than to have robots on your assembly line?

The Yaskawa showroom features a quartet of robots that bow to the audience before thumping out a kodo drum performance, robots that test human ability to follow a simple instruction, and then shred it with mechanized perfection. The first Motoman is there, greasy and burnt from years of welding, robots designed to help out in hospitals and, our favorite, a robot shaped like a duck that took a photo of our group.

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Mr. Tsuka: “When I was young we wanted to be like Astro Boy. Now robots are reality. They’re not flying around – yet. But they’re sitting next to you.”

* To learn every detail about every movie ever made, check out imdb.com - they provided the plot summary above.

Back on the bus, Brad Schmidt grabbed the microphone and described our next destination, Matsumoto Industry.

"These guys make parts for Toyota, Nissan and Daihatsu. What makes them amazing the fact that they've been able to pull work back into their factory that had been outsourced to other countries - like China. They do it by designing machines that take every last bit of waste out of the process."

Established in 1945, Matsumoto Industry currently employs 200 people at their seaside facility near Nakatsu. Those 200 employees generated $38 million in sales last year. Impressive.

They make the stuff you really don't think about much - seat frames, mufflers, door stiffeners, footrests. They keep the work in Japan because they really think about how to semi-automate processes and remove waste.

The chief thinker and product designer is Mr. Matsumoto himself. Dressed in clean coveralls, he described his early years with Matsumoto Engineering. "As I traveled around Japan selling engineering services, I realized something - what I thought was normal was abnormal. I almost always saw a way to do things smarter, faster. I started bringing back every good idea I could find. When Matsumoto Industry became a reality, we were ready."

Mr. Matsumoto held up a foot-long cable assembly. Designed to link a car's heater controls to the air doors on the cowl, this item is really nothing more than a cleverly bent piece of heavy wire with a plastic sleeve.

Until you really look at it. Then you realize that the connecting loops on one end are spread very carefully to connect with the control lever. The little jog in the wire is not 90 degrees to the other end of the cable and plastic sleeve fits very tightly - so tightly you've got to wonder how anyone could thread that wire through it.

"This part used to be built in the Philippines. It took them 1.5 minutes to make each one. Here we do them in 12 seconds."

This improvement earned Mr. Matsumoto a few minutes of fame on Japanese TV. Getting business back from a low wage country like the Philippines is news. He's done it to Chinese manufacturers too.

The shop floor could be cleaner, the aisles wider and the lights less task-specific - Matsumoto makes you work for enlightenment, but it's there.

The young man building motorcycle mufflers - he pulls a precut piece of pipe from a FIFO rack, turns slightly to his left, inserts it into another pipe, turns slightly to his left, loads it into a welding fixture, turns slightly to his left, removes a welded assembly from another fixture as the curtain falls on the first fixture and the sparks fly. He visually inspects the weld, inserts the assembly into a hydraulic press that automatically flares and notches the end. The worker takes one last look and places the finished muffler into a bin. He starts the cycle again.

The young woman assembling and welding seat backs - she picks the springs from a bin, lays them into a form while the pre-programmed bender finishes up the outer frame. She inserts the tube ends into a special flaring tool that rounds and flattens the tube so it will conform exactly to the tube diameter of the outer frame. "Makes a better weld," Mr. Matsumoto informs "makes a better seat."

This is classic lean theory made real and it is a joy to see. The crew at Matsumoto moves with purpose born of a sense of mission. They know that, as a 2nd Tier supplier, the automakers will leave them to save a nickel a part, but they rarely do. Mr. Matsumoto's company and crew reflect his belief that 'we will find a way.'

Next: 3S as lifestyle

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