I worked in a hummus factory when I was in college. Little did I know that this would be my introduction to automation. There were so many things that could go wrong on the assembly line when packaging hummus.
- The hopper runs out of hummus
- The hopper isn’t squirting out the correct amount
- The date stamp is close to the line and breaks the container
- The date stamp is wet and the timestamp is not visible
- The plastic seal is too close to the container and is burning it
- Some of the containers are empty
- Melted containers are having a traffic jam somewhere on the line
- The lid dispenser is jammed and containers are not getting lids
- Special stickers on the lids are causing the lids to stick together
This is just off the top of my head. The conveyer belt can get stuck for any reason, at any point of the process, at any time without warning. When this happens, you need to shut down the machine and troubleshoot.
What did I learn ?
- Automate what you can and it will save time
- Be ready to stop everything and get the the root cause at any time
- If the line stops (or your app crashes) downtime is very expensive
- Create some guardrails and put them in place (aka tests)
- Become familiar with the common bottlenecks and how to deal with them
- Processes should be designed to allow for continued improvement