Production Line Integration

The Challenge

Customer – manufacturer of high-pressure laminate for cabinetry and remodeling

A high-pressure laminate manufacturer for the cabinet building and remodeling industry developed a proprietary process and prototype development to manufacture and embed wireless charging stations into their laminates. They were ready to transition from a prototype, single piece, lab production environment into a pilot production line capable of producing 45,000 units per year. An integration solution to bring the individual process steps together, both technically and procedurally, into a true production environment was required.

Why Choose MiQ?

MiQ’s technical capabilities in System Integration and Automation were critical in developing the pilot production line, coupled with their ability to transform the “one off” lab-based prototype process steps into a highly efficient, multiple unit, concurrent process production cell. MiQ’s ability to develop a semi-automated production cell with automated in-process inspections, pull together the various suppliers and develop the technical solution to meet these requirements were vital in meeting the production capability and project schedule demands.

MiQ’s Design Engineering, Process Engineering, Supply Chain and Assembly teams working collaboratively were instrumental in putting together the final production cell process, capability and functional layout. The client was able to see the whole process complete: the development, design, manufacture, assembly, testing, documentation and crating for shipment of the complete system.

Our Solution

MiQ leveraged its multi-functional project team to develop the overall solution and their Supply Chain team specifically to work with the many suppliers necessary to achieve the project goals. MiQ was able to integrate off the shelf, major systems and focus on developing the technical and procedural solutions to bring those systems together to form a true pilot production line. MiQ designed and developed the solutions for the process and physically moving the product through the production cell, as well as inspecting the product as it was being manufactured.

Critical systems included assembly fixturing, lasers, ovens, dehumidification chambers, sewing operations, stamping operations, vision inspection, visual and audible directives for manual operations and material handling.