Workstations Design for Casting Process

in Low Voltage Current Transformers Manufacturing Plant

Nguyen Thanh Luan1, Huynh Ngoc Hai Trieu2, Trinh Minh Loc3, Diep Nam Anh4, Do Ngoc Hien5
Department of Industrial Systems Engineering, Hochiminh City University of Technology, Hochiminh City,
Vietnam
1
thanhluanpes@gmail.com, 2htrieu77@gmail.com, 3trinhminhloc@gmail.com, 4diepnamanh@gmail.com
5
hienise97@hcmut.edu.vn

ABSTRACT
Work design includes contents, methods and relationships to satisfy work requirements for productivity, efficiency and
quality, meet the needs of the job holder and increase levels of employee engagement. Many relative research topics on
re-engineering system or re-designing workstations or application results were published and have positive results. An
optimum work design process was studied and used to design new workstations for casting process in an electrical
equipment manufacturing plant. The expected capacity will be increased from 94 units per day at present to 132 units per
day and working conditions will be improved with human-factors and Five S’s.
Keywords: Work Design, Job Design, Lean Manufacturing, Standardize of Work, Ergonomic.

1. Introduction research methodology, standardizing works, studying

Work design specifies the contents, methods and
relationships of jobs in order to satisfy work
requirements for productivity, efficiency and quality,
meet the personal needs of the job holder and thus
increase levels of employee engagement [3]. Work
design goal is to create a work system that is productive,
efficient and safe, which has to be suitable with the
operator(s) [1].
Work design is a relatively new science that deals with
designing the task, workstation, and working
environment to fit the human operator better. In the
United States, it is more typically known as human
factors, while internationally it is better known as
ergonomics, which is derived from the Greek words for
work (erg) and laws (nomos) [5]
An optimum work design process was studied and used
to design works for a furniture manufacturing and also
electronic assembly shop floor. Achieved results were
impressed by increasing of capacity around 20 to 60
percent [4].
Lean manufacturing techniques is a set of tools and
methods for eliminating wastes in manufacturing
operation. Its benefit includes cost reduction, improve
output and shorten lead time. There are some targets:
Defects and wastes, Lead time, Inventories,
Productivity, Machine and space utilization, flexibility,
Output and so on [2]
Re-engineering focuses on some
aspects such as reducing wastes, standardizing works,
internal logistics, workplace designing and changing
layout. Some positive results in assembly line have
been recorded on reducing nearly 40% manpower with
the same daily output, saving 30% floor area and
reducing average delivery time from 7.5
days to 3 days [6].
2. Methodology
There are five steps in a general cycle of work design
process as shown on Fig.1, which includes building up
1
working time, setting up standard time, following as well
as evaluating changes in practice conditions.
Figure 1. Cycle of work design process
There are six steps in implementing work design.
Step 1: Identify workstations in the researched system.
Basic information should be collected for each
workstation including its name, picture, machine or/and
equipment, function, number of operators. Goal of this
step is to initially understand the system and determine
which stations should be focused to improve.
Step 2: Identify tasks at studied workstations. Operations
(tasks) research is done in a systematic study of operator
tasks at the workstations. In this step, some ideas on
improvement of workstations should be created, which
should be focused on human factors.
Step 3: Design the guideline process to do the job at each
workstation – Standardization. Sequence to do the job is
standardized as the best method to complete all required
tasks at the relative workstation. It strongly helps
eliminating unnecessary tasks, combining suitable tasks
together, reducing bad effectiveness on operators,
getting good working place, and increasing the utility of
machine or/and equipment.
Step 4: Identify elements at the researched workstation.
Elements at each workstation should be identified. The
goal of this step is to determine its necessary and
unnecessary elements, whether their arrangement is
good or bad, rearrangement if necessary, and
improvement.
Step 5: Redesign workstations if necessary. Its elements
or parts should be relocated. In addition, equipment or
working table or chair could be redesigned. As a result,
operator would be had good place to do the job in the
best ways.
Step 6: Implementation and modification. In this step,
some pilot workstations should be studied and improved.
The operators should be trained before operating new
designs. Its efficiency and effectiveness should be
evaluated to pursue implementing this process for whole
the shop floor. Actually, following and modifications
should be done. Figure 2. Cycle time of current working process
After completing the work standardization, it is
necessary to do time study. As a result, standard time To improve the time for preparing casting compound, an
would be used to set up the necessary time frame for automated potting casting compound machine can be
completing the work. used and to eliminate waiting times for curing, a
conveyor can be used between assembly molds station
3. Designing Workstations for Low Voltage and disassembly molds station.
Current Transformers casting process with the Automated potting casting compound machine helps the
principles of work design. quality of cast products are better than before, save times
Low voltage current transformers (LVCT) casted by and more healthy for employee. Automated potting
epoxy resin are single phase, ring types. They are used casting compound machine uses dosing pumps and static
for electrical measurement and protection systems under mixer for continuous mixing compound following the
1000 Volts and ratios from 50/5A to 20,000/5A. There right setting ratio. The potting speed is about 500 grams
are steps in manufacturing this product type, including per minutes or it takes about one minute for full a mold.
Core winding; Core annealing, Core wiring, Core
testing; Casting and Finishing.
There are seven current tasks in casting and finishing
step, including Barrel casting; Cover casting; Molds
assembly; Resin mixing and casting; Curing;
Demolding and Finishing.
There are some problems at present in casting process,
such as:
- Layout and implementing Five S’s (5S) are not good, At present
so affect the out- put of production.
- Unsuitable ergonomics at workstation is affecting long-
term health of workers and labor productivity.
- Working processes haven’t been standardized and still
manual, so the quality of products is not stable.
- The risk of late delivery with big orders and the
customers’ demand is increasing.
So re-designing workstations in LVCT casting process
Future
is necessary to improve the quality, productivity and
Figure 3 New preparing casting compound station
working environment.
Customers’ demand is 120 products per day, working
Assembly molds station and disassembly molds station
time is 5 hour and 30 minutes so takt time is 165 seconds
are also redesigned following more ergonomic and more
per product. Waste activities here are preparing the
convenient..
casting compound, waiting for the casting compound
cured and cleaning the casted product twice times.

2
 Future
Figure 6. Casting process layouts at present and in
the future

After finishing designing workstations, work procedure

at each station will be standardized.
Date
Model STANDARD WORK COMBINATION SHEET Manual work Machine Work
Prepare Walking
Work Assembly mold TAKT Takt time
Group Casting 165
Station workstation Time
Operation Working Time (In Seconds)

Figure 4. New design of assembly and disassembly Step No. Description of Operation Time (sec.)
Manual Auto Walk
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180

molds workstations 1
Put the barrel into the
core
10

2 Clean and polish the mold 15

Casting process will need 5 workers for 5 workstations, 3 Screw and fix the core

Assembly mold with the

50

4 35
includes assembly workstation, potting casting core

5 Shake the mold lightly 5

compound workstation, disassembly workstation, TOTAL 115 X 0

cleaning &finishing workstation and mounting Model

Preparing casting
STANDARD WORK COMBINATION SHEET
Date 20.5.201
Prepare 9
Manual work
Walking
Machine Work

nameplate &packaging workstation. Work

Station
compound and
Disassembly mold
workstations
Group Casting
TAKT
Time
165 Takt time

Operation Working Time (In Seconds)

Step No. Description of Operation Time (sec.) 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180
Manual Auto Walk

1 Disassembly the mold 90

Put the casted product

2 3
into keeping tray
Push empty mold back to
3 assembly mold 3 3
workstation
Put the mold with casting
4 compound on the 10
conveyor
Put the assemblied mold
5 10 60 3
at potting place

TOTAL 116 X 6

Figure 7. Standard sheets at assembly mold

workstation and disassembly mold workstation

With the new workstations design, the expected capacity

will be increased from 94 units per day at present to 132
units per day. Working environment and conditions will
be improved with human-factors than at present,
employees will work safely and efficiently. Five S’s will
Figure 5. Cycle time after eliminating some waste be exactly improved after implementing new
activities. workstations.

The layout of casting process is arranged again to be 4. Conclusions

influent with new workstations design.
This research shows that there are many opportunities to
improve any system or workstation. It is not complicated
but it would bring a lot essential benefits. A well
organized workstation minimizes material handling,
improves efficiency and reduces workers fatigue By
implementing these workstations design productivity
and efficiency of the worker can be improved in terms of
quality and quantity.

Acknowledgements
The companies providing financial supports and
At present opportunities to implement this research on the practice
systems. Partners contributed their time and efforts and
had good cooperation.
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5. References
[1] Le, N. Q-L. (2013), Rationalizing manufacturing work
station: A case study, Proceedings of the 2013
international conference on industrial systems
engineering & Logistics, Vietnam National University
publishers.
[2] Le Ngoc Quynh Lam, Do Ngoc Hien, Nam Ki-Chan,
An Implementation of Lean Technology in an in-Plant
Manufacturing System, a Furniture Company, Applied
Mechanics and Materials, Vols. 110-116, pp 4799 –
4807, 2012.
[3]Michael Armstrong (2009), Job and Role Design and
Development, Armstrong’s Handbook of Human
Resource Management Practice 11th Edition, Kogan
Page, London and Philadelphia, p. 466-475.
[4] Ngoc Hien Do (2014), Standardization of the Work
Design Process in the Manufacturing Shop-Floor,
RCMME 2014, HUST, Hanoi, Vietnam.
[5] Niebel B. W., and Freivalds A. (2013), Niebel’s
Methods, Standards & Work Design, McGraw-Hill
Education, 13th Edition.
[6]Minh-Nhat Nguyen, Ngoc-Hien Do (2016), Re-
engineering Assembly line with Lean Techniques, 13th
Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing-
Decoupling Growth from Resource Use, Procedia CIRP
40, p. 591-596.