The project is to be completed for Finish Corp. in Grand Haven. This is where the bumpers will be painted then assembled. The chosen process for the assembly area is to unload the bumpers from the conveyor onto a set of four (4) over-under conveyors. This prevents a problem for when there is a "surge" of bumpers coming off the main conveyor.

The second stage of the assembly is the unloading of the bumpers onto the first part of the assembly table. Once here the bumpers will have thin plastic strips attached to the back side of them using plastic pins. The pins are to be driven into the bumper using a rubber mallet to prevent any marring of the paint. Also, in this first stage of assembly, there will be two dampers placed onto their location studs.

The third assembly stage comprises the dampers being secured to the bumper. This is done using supplied nuts and air ratchets which hang from overhead. There are two (2) nuts per damper, totaling four (4) per bumper. These nuts must be attached to the required specification of 16 –26 N*m of torque. This is the break away torque for the nuts. The air ratchets used will be set toward the high end of the specified range to allow the desired break away torque to be reached. This value will be determined through testing.

In the fourth assembly stage, the bumper is rolled over allowing the front of the bumper to be facing up. Here the white foam is attached to the front of the bumper with plastic pins or "Christmas trees." The pins will just be started into the bumper in this part of the assembly.

From the fourth stage, the bumper is placed into a machine which, when palm buttons are depressed, will stake the pins into the bumper to the desired depth. The use of the machine ensures that the foam will not be allowed to "float" on the front of the bumper. This "floating" is undesired by the bumper manufacturer.

After the machine cycles, the bumper is manually taken off the machine and set onto an exit table. Once on the exit table, the bumper will be visually inspected to check for assembly errors. Then, after inspection, the bumper will be placed into a shipping bin.

Using the Design For Assembly (DFA) software, the estimated assembly time and assembly cost can be found. This analysis was completed for the assembly from when the bumper is placed on the assembly table to when it is taken out of the machine. The time and cost of putting the bumpers onto the over-under conveyors was not calculated due to the fact that the flow of bumpers is going to be very sporadic.

The break down of the analysis is shown here in Table #1