Japanese innovation in production technology continues since Honda introduced a so-called ARC Line to Honda’s new Prachinburi Plant in Thailand that started in March 2016. In ARC Line production, four workers get on board an ARC Unit, a conveyor that carries one vehicle body and a complete set of parts to be installed to the vehicle body. The workers assemble the vehicle while moving along the production line together with the vehicle.
Honda says that the ARC system reduces incidental movements by workers – such as selecting the proper parts for the specifications of the next vehicle body coming down the line and installing them while walking along with the vehicle body. Honda says they are not considered essential assembly movements but are inevitable in conventional production processes. The ARC Line production achieves a “significant improvement in production efficiency through the reduction of such process loss.”
There is also a human aspect with ARC Line production, as each worker takes charge of a broader range of production processes, which makes it possible for associates to gain more knowledge and skills. Honda expects this to have a positive effect on the development of proficient production associates who will be capable of providing feedback from the production team to the development team in the future.
ARC Unit
An ARC Unit constitutes the function of a conveyor that moves with the fixed layout of a vehicle body, with assembly parts and a workspace for each worker onboard. Traffic lines workers do not cross, therefore four workers can assemble one vehicle simultaneously. This reduces the amount of unnecessary incidental movements, which increases ARC Line work efficiency by approximately 10% compared a conventional line.
Regarding logistics, because of the loop-shape of the conveyor, by supplying full boxes of assembly parts at the start of assembly and retrieving empty boxes at the end of assembly can be done at the same place. As a result, the number of spots where assembly parts are brought to the line is minimized. This reduces the workload related to parts handling within the plant by ~10%.
The ARC Unit can be added to the production line unit by unit, which enables the plant to change the layout of a production line flexibly to accommodate changes in production volume, as well as the addition of production models. Moreover, the ARC Line has a structure that is less likely to be affected by spatial restrictions of an installation site, therefore reduced investment cost is predicted when structurally identical ARC production lines are installed at Honda production plants around the world.
