NEWS
NEWS
Tier-one automotive supplier shortens cycle time, improves standardized work adherence on assembly line that was previously considered optimized
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – November 17, 2020 – Drishti Technologies, Inc. (Drishti), whose AI-powered production technology uses video analytics, data and insights to bring significant benefits to manufacturers and their employees, today announced that it has successfully concluded a 10-week proof of concept deployment with HELLA (FRA:HLE), a tier-one automotive supplier with a large global footprint.
HELLA, which is an advanced manufacturing company with disciplined adherence to lean principles, deployed 12 Drishti cameras on an automotive component assembly line in Guanajuato, Mexico. Because HELLA has established a lean philosophy throughout the organization since 2007, the selected assembly line was already a high-performing line in the company. HELLA was intrigued by Drishti’s AI-powered production solution and challenged the company to find opportunities for improvement, even though the line was already considered optimized based on state-of-the-art, non-AI lean methodologies.
Using Drishti Trace, which allows manufacturers to use live and recorded video to learn from what has happened, and Drishti Flow, which adds AI to provide assembly data that lets manufacturers closely monitor and rapidly improve performance, the HELLA team and Drishti jointly identified a number of potential improvements. In some instances, HELLA engineers were able to verify adherence to standardized work and implement improvements to the standardized work to reduce process delays and microstops.
“Standardized work is the foundation of our assembly operations, and finding opportunities to improve adherence has the potential to significantly boost our productivity,” said Marcos Aurelio Alves Junior, operational excellence and industrial engineering manager at HELLA Mexico.
Alves and his team used the AI-generated data points in Drishti’s Portal to pinpoint statistical outliers, cycles that took significantly more or less time than the others. Because of the sheer volume of cycle time data Drishti provides, these outliers were clear indicators that attention was required.
“Drishti Trace lets anyone with access to the Portal go back in time and see exactly what happened on the factory floor,” said Alves. “It solves a number of questions about what happened in the past, making the process to identify deviations shorter and us more assertive in attacking the correct outliers in our histograms. And it’s particularly useful during the coronavirus because it doesn’t require our team to travel to the site to know what’s happening.”
At the conclusion of the 10-week deployment, HELLA saw a significant improvement in productivity on the assembly line. A broader Drishti deployment is currently in the works.
“Drishti’s technology uniquely provides us with information about what’s happening on the factory floor, now and in the past, wherever we are,” said Michael Hammoud, vice president of operations, HELLA. “It helps us support our lean practices with data, and use the information we get from the cameras and AI to train our operators, improving their productivity and job satisfaction at the same time. It’s a win-win for the company and our employees.”
For more information on Drishti, visit Drishti.com.
About Drishti Technologies
Drishti’s mission is to extend human capabilities in an increasingly automated world. Its AI-powered video analytics technology provides visibility and insights that transform the pace and impact of manual assembly line improvement. Manufacturers use Drishti to anchor true digital transformation, driving sweeping improvements in quality costs, efficiency gains and time-to-proficiency for line associate training. And line associates rely on Drishti to be more consistent and efficient, becoming even more valuable on the factory floor. In 2019, Drishti was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer; in 2020, Drishti was named to the Forbes AI 50 and a Top 5 AI Company in North America by NVIDIA. For more information, visit Drishti.com.
