item launches learning factory in Hanover
Experience the principles of lean production live! That is the principle on which item and Factory Consultants have pooled their expertise to offer a practical seminar package at a learning factory based at the item site in Hanover. Participants get hands-on to produce a working product and learn the key methods of lean production, how they are applied and how they can boost performance. They then take their newly acquired know-how back to their own working environment. When fitting out the learning factory, the team opted for the Lean Production Building Kit System from item. Profile Tube System D30 is the heart of the learning factory and makes it particularly easy for students to quickly reconfigure their benches.
What are the methods of lean production? How can they be applied in practical scenarios? What do they deliver? These questions and many more like them are what the Hanover learning factory sets out to answer. Through their joint seminar portfolio, item and Factory Consultants aim to offer a professional guide to applying lean production across the board. Covering an area of approximately 150 m2, the factory offers both newcomers and seasoned lean veterans an ideal and realistic working environment that provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step introduction to the transition from conventional production to lean production. Training starts out with the usual everyday scenario at a traditional company and typical production conditions such as complex volumes of materials and data and batches of various sizes. The seminars faithfully recreate the manufacture of a genuine product that comes in multiple variants. Participants learn how to use appropriate lean tools such as the 5S method and value stream mapping to significantly improve the system as a whole. This gives them the opportunity to experience the positive outcomes of the lean methods first hand, get to know them inside-out and then transfer this newly acquired know-how to their own production systems.
Profile Tube System D30 for maximum flexibility
Besides various types of equipment for work bench design such as parts containers, roller conveyors and technical accessories, Profile Tube System D30 from item is also used in the learning factory. The office workstations, the assembly line and the storage facility are all constructed from the aluminium profiles. The system supports the flexible, rapid and simple assembly, disassembly and modification of benches and stations – without compromising on stability. The learning factory can therefore also be taken down, transported and put together somewhere else, such as a customer’s premises. Participants can focus on different training topics to suit their specific requirements, too. In the future, visitors will even be able to explore the opportunities and consequences of digitalisation and networking on the shop floor. For example, there are plans to integrate RFID systems for paperless production and introduce pick by light technology for order picking. Furthermore, item is looking to open learning factories at other branches.
This year’s dates at the Hanover learning factory are:
•12 and 13 September 2018, Lean Production Learning Factory, Hanover
• 29 November 2018, Lean Production Learning Factory, Hanover
Length: 3,396 characters including spaces
As at: June 2018
Images: 4
item PM, Hanover learning factory, Image 1 © item
item PM, Hanover learning factory, Image 2 © item
item PM, Hanover learning factory, Image 3 © item
item PM, Hanover learning factory, Image 4 © item
Picture captions:
Images 1 to 4: The Hanover learning factory offers seminar participants an ideal and realistic working environment that provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step introduction on how to transition from conventional production to lean production.
item Industrietechnik GmbH
item Industrietechnik GmbH is a global market leader in building kit systems for industrial applications and employs around 500 members of staff. It has been designing and marketing construction solutions for machinery, fixtures and plants since 1976. The product portfolio comprises more than 3,500 high-quality components designed for use in machine bases, work benches, automation solutions and lean production applications. Thanks to the inclusion of transport solutions and dynamic elements, the company’s products can cover virtually all working processes, from manual production to automated manufacturing. The highly skilled employees work day-in, day-out to develop innovative solutions for state-of-the-art mechanical engineering and also offer exceptional consulting services. item is headquartered in Solingen, Germany. Eleven branches and support centres ensure the company is always close to customers in Germany. The group has wholly owned subsidiaries in the USA, China, Mexico, Italy, Poland and Switzerland.
