Optimizing manufacturing space for a fully autonomous robotic workforce allows for an increase in productivity. Human laborers can be dispatched to a separate location for tasks such as quality assurance. Companies incorporating lights-out methodologies into floor plans only need to consider robotic workers, which minimize space and climate-control requirements.

Lights-out manufacturing may increase productivity and lower upkeep costs. In the manufacturing of integrated circuits using 300 mm wafers, the entire manufacturing process is completely automated, with workers only making sure that the process runs without problems and repairing any faulty machinery. There are only nine human quality assurance workers who oversee the end of the manufacturing process. In the Netherlands, Philips uses lights-out manufacturing to produce electric razors, with 128 robots made by Adept Technology. 'Not only is it lights-out,' says Fanuc vice president Gary Zywiol, 'we turn off the air conditioning and heat too.' Robots are building other robots at a rate of about 50 per 24-hour shift and can run unsupervised for as long as 30 days at a time.

Existing 'lights-out factories' įANUC, a Japanese robotics company, has been operating as a lights-out factory since 2001. Although the machines are run without being under constant supervision, it is a common practice to always have a person in the vicinity of the machine. A few machine shops run CNC unattended on nights and weekends. Real-world examples 'Lights out' computer numerical control (CNC) machining ĬNC machines do not require continuous operator attention, and some models can run unattended. 1.1 'Lights out' computer numerical control (CNC) machining.One of the earliest descriptions of the automatic factory in fiction was the 1955 short story ' Autofac,' by Philip K. Going forward this concept of automation will become more popular and can support human beings.Īn automatic factory is a place where raw materials enter, and finished products leave with little or no human intervention. As the technology necessary for total automation becomes increasingly available, many factories are beginning to use lights-out production between shifts (or as a separate shift) to meet increasing production demand or to save money on labor. Typically, in computer numerical control (CNC) machining, workers are necessary to set up tombstones that hold parts to be manufactured and remove completed parts. These factories are considered to be able to run 'with the lights off.' Many factories are capable of lights-out production, but few run exclusively lights-out. Lights-out manufacturing is a manufacturing methodology (or philosophy), not a specific process.įactories that employ 'lights-out manufacturing' are fully automated and require no human presence on-site. Designing automated factories to not require humans on-site

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