Re: One Story Assembly Plant What If?

Posted by Steve203 On 2014/6/22 12:46:04

The operator steps in and places a part and the machine moves in again. From what I could see the operation seemed to be automatic.

Cycling the machine regardless whether the operator has the piece placed properly or not could be wasteful. The operator is probably tripping the machine with a foot pedal. Foot pedals were a favorite of Frank Gilbreth, as the foot pedal kept the operators hands free so the time spent moving hands from placing the part to tripping the machine was reduced. Those pedals are gone now, as it was too easy for the operator to trip the machine before he got his hands out of the way.

Talk about nerves of steel.


The kings of nerves of steel in my book are railroad workers. Before the air brake was developed, brakemen had to run along the tops of the cars to operate the individual brake wheels on the cars, with the train in motion, in the dark, with the tops of the cars slick with rain, snow or ice.

Before the knuckle coupler was developed, trainmen had to stand between the cars as they were pushed together, and guide the link from one car into the pocket of the other car, while dropping a pin in place to hold the cars together. It was said you could tell how long a man had been doing this by the number of fingers he had lost.