Material Handling Information - Case Studies - Hewlett-Packard
Case Studies - Electronics Industry Application
Hewlett-Packard
Click on any thumbnail for a larger image
Application
Hewlett-Packard repair service center -- Corvallis, OR.
Repairs computers, laptops, printers, fax machines, and
other peripherals.
Ships approximately 1,000 customer units per day.
Key Customer Benefits
Productivity doubled.
Repair cycle time cut 33% despite a 4X increase in volume.
Most units are on the way back to the owners within 48
hours.
Eliminates wasted time hunting for parts and products
to work on.
Improved customer satisfaction through faster turnaround
and consistent quality repairs.
Material Flow Requirements
Reduce repair turnaround time while maintaining consistency
and quality.
Deliver repair units and parts on demand to service technicians.
Allow repair technicians to control their own workflow.
Material Flow Hardware
Three-aisle mini load
automated storage buffer with 4,224 storage locations stores
units awaiting repair and refurbished units.
Two-aisle mini load with 1,326 storage locations stores
small replacement parts for replenishment to workstations.
Three-aisle unit load
with 930 storage locations stores pallets of large replacement
parts.
Eight Sorting Transfer Vehicles (STV)
on a loop system.
Three STVs on a shuttle line.
Three banks of Use-Point-Manager ergonomic workstations.
Computer Control System
Real-time inventory control system linked to H-P's host
order processing system.
Material Flow Process
Input
Incoming units are placed on bar-coded trays.
Loaded trays are transferred to one of four conveyor sorting
lines which deliver them to the log-in station.
The log-in operator enters the customer I.D., the repair
unit's make, model, and serial number, along with the customer
complaint.
The operator determines the type of repair required, the
priority the unit receives, and the skill level required
for repair.
The log-in operator transfers the tray to an STV, which
takes the unit to the mini load to wait for the next qualified
repair technician.
Output
Technicians request units to repair from terminals at their workstations.
The system directs the mini load to retrieve a unit that matches the technician's assigned skill level.
The mini load locates the highest priority tray that has been in the system the longest, retrieves the tray, and transfers it via conveyor to the next available STV on the loop.
The loop STV takes the unit to the shuttle line, where it is transferred to a shuttle STV and delivered to the assigned workstation for repair.
When the repair is complete, the technician returns the unit to its tray, logging the completed job and parts used into the host computer.
A shuttle STV retrieves the tray and delivers the unit to the packing and shipping department.
