Automate Your Subassembly Manufacturing for Greater Efficiency

subassembly manufacturing

Subassembly production often challenges logistics, quality control, and coordination for manufacturers. However, automating subassembly manufacturing with an ERP system can transform your production operations, significantly improving efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings.

According to the 2024 Smart Technology Statistics by ScoopMarket.us, a majority of manufacturing investments were directed toward process automation, streamlining, and optimizing production processes in 2024. By integrating ERP software into your manufacturing processes, you can automate crucial tasks that save you time and money. Automation not only streamlines workflows but also reduces manual data entry, enhances real-time visibility, and optimizes overall production.

This blog article explores how manufacturers can overcome the complexities of subassembly manufacturing and achieve a more efficient production environment with an ERP system. Let’s dive in.

What are Subassemblies?

Subassemblies are smaller, individual components or units combined to create a more complex product in the manufacturing process. Each unit usually goes through a separate production process. It can also be made and tested separately before being added to the final product.

Key characteristics of subassemblies include:

  1. Modularity: Designed and built as distinct modules, allowing for easier assembly and disassembly of the final product.
  2. Efficiency: Manufactured separately improves production efficiency. It allows parallel processing and reduces the complexity of the final production process.
  3. Quality Control: Testing each subassembly before product completion ensures higher overall product quality and reduces the risk of defects.
  4. Flexibility: Used across multiple product lines, offering flexibility and cost savings in the manufacturing process.

Commonly Manufactured Subassemblies

Cabinetry Products

  • Cabinet doors: Core components in bathroom and kitchen cabinet doors, including face frames, pre-milled designs, soft-close features, and pre-cut sizes.
  • Cabinet drawers: Drawer subassemblies may include drawer faces, boxes, and glides for better kitchen and bathroom organization.
  • Interior Storage Units: Popular storage options include custom closet subassemblies to rotate hanging apparel and pull-out or pull-down shelving units that make kitchen life easier.
subassembly manufacturing

Subassemblies come in many shapes and forms including cabinet components, electronics and auto parts.

Industrial Products

  • Electronic Control Units (ECUs): Used in machines for automation and control. They often have microprocessors, sensors, and input/output modules.
  • Hydraulic Systems: Utilized in industrial machinery for motion control, including pumps, valves, actuators, and fluid reservoirs. Hydraulic arms are also found in common products like entry doors, soft-close hinge mechanisms, and vehicle shocks.
  • Gear Assemblies: Essential for transmission and movement in various machinery, consisting of gears, shafts, bearings, and housings.
  • Pneumatic Systems: Used in machinery requiring air-powered operations, including compressors, cylinders, valves, and compressed air lines.

Automotive and Aerospace

  • Engine Modules: Core components in vehicles and aircraft, including cylinder heads, pistons, crankshafts, and camshafts.
  • Avionics Systems: Used in aerospace for navigation and communication, comprising radios, navigation systems, and display units.
  • Chassis and Frame Assemblies: The structural backbone for vehicles and aircraft, including frames, suspension systems, and axles.
  • Fuel Systems: Essential for fuel storage and delivery, including tanks, pumps, injectors, and filters.

Complexities of Subassembly Manufacturing

Subassembly production involves manufacturing component modules separately before they are added to the final product. While this approach offers numerous benefits, such as improved efficiency and flexibility, it comes with its share of issues:

Increased Complexity in Logistics and Inventory Management

Managing multiple subassembly types requires careful coordination to ensure all components are available when needed. This can complicate logistics and increase the likelihood of inventory shortages that impact the production of finished goods. Storing and handling subassemblies can be costly, as well as the need for additional tracking and management systems.

Higher Risk of Quality Issues

When products are made in different places or by different suppliers, quality can suffer. This can cause inconsistencies in the final product. Ensuring quality control across multiple production sites and assembly lines may require additional resources for inspection and testing.

Coordination and Communication Challenges

Effective communication between various teams and suppliers is crucial for successful subassembly manufacturing. Miscommunications or delays can disrupt the production schedule and lead to bottlenecks. Coordination becomes more complex as the number of modules and suppliers increases, potentially leading to misalignments in production timelines.

longer lead times, subassembly manufacturing, erp system

Outsourced subassembly component suppliers can lead to longer lead times.

Longer Lead Times

Producing and transporting subassemblies can increase the overall lead time for the final product. This is especially true if they come from far away or different places. Delays in any part of the subassembly manufacturing process can cascade, affecting the entire production schedule.

Increased Production Costs

Producing subassemblies separately can sometimes result in higher overall production costs because of additional handling, transportation, and storage requirements. There may also be increased administrative costs related to managing multiple suppliers and coordinating various production stages.

Dependency on External Suppliers

Relying on external subassembly suppliers introduces a risk of supply chain disruptions. This includes supplier issues, transportation delays, or geopolitical factors. Ensuring supplier reliability and maintaining good relationships become critical, as any disruption can significantly impact the final product assembly process.

Potential for Design and Compatibility Issues

Integrating subassemblies from different sources can lead to design compatibility issues, requiring additional engineering efforts to ensure seamless integration. Changes in design specifications for one subassembly may necessitate adjustments in others, complicating the engineering change process.

Reduced Flexibility in Production Changes

Changes to the finished products’ design or production process can be harder and more expensive after subassemblies are made. Plus, if you already have the units in inventory, it is harder to respond to changes in market demand.

Despite these drawbacks, subassembly manufacturing remains a valuable approach in many industries, particularly when the benefits of specialization, efficiency, and scalability outweigh the challenges. Careful planning, robust supply chain management, and automated processes can help mitigate some of these disadvantages.

Automated ERP Subassembly Manufacturing

“Workflow automation is not a luxury, but a necessity for businesses that want to stay competitive in today’s digital age.” – Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot Co-Founder and CTO. While HubSpot isn’t a manufacturer, Shah’s words ring true for the industry.

Automating your subassembly manufacturing processes with an ERP system can revolutionize your production workflow. By leveraging your ERP software, you can systematically optimize workflows and simplify processes, saving you time and money. This effectively streamlines the entire subassembly production process and minimizes manual data entry for more efficient operations. The following are a few examples:

Bill of Materials (BOM) Management

  • Digital Storage and Updates: Keep BOMs in the ERP system. This ensures that accurate component lists for each subassembly are easy to automatically access.
  • Automated Component Requisition: Automatically generate component requisition orders based on the BOM when a new subassembly work order is created.

Work Order Generation

  • Direct Creation from Sales Orders: You can create work orders straight from sales orders. This process automatically assigns the needed parts from the BOM and flags them in inventory.
  • Production Scheduling: Work orders are automatically scheduled based on production capacity and due dates to optimize workflows.

Inventory Tracking

  • Real-Time Visibility: Gain real-time visibility into component inventory levels, with alerts for low stock and replenishment needs.
  • Automated Adjustments: Automatically adjust inventory levels upon component usage during subassembly production.

Shop Floor Control

shop floor control, MES, production tracking

Frontier ERP’s integrated MES module lets you easily monitor and track all production processes for your subassembly manufacturing.

  • Barcode Scanning: Utilize barcode scanning to track component usage and labor time at each subassembly station.
  • Real-Time Monitoring: Monitor production progress in real-time through machine integration on shop floor devices.

Quality Control

  • Integrated Quality Checks: Incorporate quality checks into the workflow, automatically generating non-conformance reports for rejected components within the ERP system.
  • Real-Time Data Tracking and Analysis: Track and analyze quality data to identify and address potential issues with manufacturing processes proactively.

Reporting and Analytics

  • Production Metrics Reports: Generate reports on subassembly production metrics such as cycle time, scrap rates, and labor costs.
  • Data-Driven Optimization: Analyze ERP system data to identify areas for improvement and optimize production processes.

Benefits of Automating Subassembly Manufacturing with an ERP

  • Increased Efficiency: Reduce manual data entry, streamline workflows, and accelerate production cycles.
  • Improved Accuracy: Minimize errors with automated data flow and real-time inventory updates.
  • Enhanced Visibility: Gain real-time insights into production status, inventory levels, and potential bottlenecks.
  • Cost Reduction: Optimize material usage, reduce waste, and improve labor productivity.
  • Better Quality Control: Proactively identify and mitigate quality issues to ensure high standards.

Conclusion

Automating your subassembly manufacturing processes with an ERP system can significantly enhance efficiency, accuracy, and visibility while reducing costs and improving quality control. Implementing ERP automation isn’t merely a technological upgrade; it’s a vital step toward long-term business success.

Would you like to learn more about Friedman Corporation and how Frontier ERP can help automate your subassembly manufacturing?

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