Manufacturing Industry

Robots Help Honda Reduce Retooling Time.

Assembly, December, 2000

TOKYO--Honda Motor Co. has developed a new manufacturing system that enables the carmaker to retool assembly plants faster and less expensively.

Honda invented the system at its assembly plant in Alliston, Ontario, which produces the Odyssey minivan. When the plant was also charged with the task of building the Acura MDX sport utility vehicle, Honda had to find a way to reduce the time and costs associated with changeover. It found a solution in robotics.

At the heart of the new system are programmable welding robots that can recognize which vehicle they are working on. With the flexibility of the robots, the Alliston assembly line can switch from producing Odyssey minivans to the MDX SUVs in approximately 8 minutes.

Honda is planning to...

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