Mitsubishi Electric Develops Production Line Improvement Technology

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) announced today it has developed a new technology for the efficient design of production floor layouts and material flows as well as the accurate estimation of productivity using Mitsubishi Electric’s Maisart^®* artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The combined technology enables comparison of highly accurate production line improvement plans and reduce the time it takes to roughly half the time normally required.
* Mitsubishi Electric’s AI creates the State-of-the- ART in technologyKey Features

1) Integrated design of layout and materials flow raises planning efficiency

The new technology integrates the designing of production-floor layouts and materials flow for the quick identification and resolution of potential issues, which is a challenge in conventional nonintegrated design environments. The new technology also visualizes information such as distance-intensity (DI) analytical data which is generated dynamically as improvements are designed. Layouts, material flows, speed of materials moving between processes, etc. can be displayed with easy-to-understand graphics to enhance the quality of planning.

2) AI simulations enable precise estimates of expected productivity gains

The technology automatically generates data for reliable production-volume calculations based on data from actual production processes, such as changes in process times and work efficiencies. Using these data, production volume can be simulated with more than 90 percent accuracy. Also, multiple improvement plans can be compared in terms of expected productivity.