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KUKA Robotics offers a broad range of highly modular robots, covering all common payload categories, from 3 kg to 1000 kg. Over two thirds of the KUKA robots installed in the field use our open architecture PC-based controller, making KUKA the number one PC-controlled robot manufacturer in the world. KUKA controllers are also available for integration with other components of your automation systems. Other products include SoftPLC, Remote Service, KUKA SIM simulation software, Networking Services and a variety of dress packages. In addition, our Systems Partners - experts in their respective industries - offer key technologies that transform the KUKA robot into an application-specific solution. Our advanced KUKA College enables fast learning through flexible training systems that simulate a variety of real-world applications. KUKA Robotics offers a 24-hour service hotline as well as engineering services.
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KUKA Systems Unit KTPO Produces Milestone 500,000th Wrangler Body
POSTED 09/14/2010
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Production workers at KUKA Toledo Production Operations gather around the 500,000th Jeep Wrangler body-in-white built at the four-year-old plant in Ohio. The KTPO operation is part of Chrysler’s Toledo Supplier Park, the most productive manufacturing site for cars in North America. (Photo: KUKA Systems) |
This represents an important milestone for the four-year-old venture known as the KUKA Toledo Production Operations (KTPO), which has earned a reputation as one of the most efficient body-in-white manufacturing centers in the North American auto industry. KTPO is one of four plants comprising the Toledo Supplier Park, the only venture of its type in North America. Different contractors, each in its own building located at Chrysler Group’s Toledo Assembly complex perform separate vehicle assembly functions for the Wrangler. KTPO builds the body-in-white, which is the unfinished, unpainted vehicle body that is mated later to the chassis. Magna Steyr operates the paint shop and Mobis North America, a division of Hyundai-Mobis, assembles the chassis. Chrysler performs final assembly.
The supplier park began producing the Wrangler in 2006 and soon became one of the most efficient assembly operations on the continent. For two years now, a leading third party agency that measures auto industry efficiency has reported that it takes less time to build a complete vehicle in the supplier park than at any other North American assembly plant, domestic or foreign-owned.
KTPO’s first time capability rate – the percentage of Wrangler bodies passing initial inspection and going to the paint shop without secondary inspection or reprocessing work – is industry-leading, says KTPO managing director Jake Ladouceur. With exceedingly low staff turnover and a strong relationship with its United Auto Workers union local, “we’re able to focus our joint efforts on the product for continuous improvement.”
In designing and equipping KTPO, KUKA Systems leveraged its expertise as a leading designer and integrator of automated assembly processes for major automakers. The Toledo line is equipped with 245 robots and is staffed by 240 employees working two shifts per day.
“KTPO is showcasing how KUKA Systems can implement a state-of-the-art body shop that year after year sustains the highest level of operational efficiency and product quality,” says Larry Drake, president and CEO, KUKA System Group.
About KUKA Systems:
KUKA Systems Corp North America, a Michigan-based company, is part of KUKA Systems Group of Augsburg, Germany, a leading global supplier of flexible automation systems for the automotive, aerospace, energy and other industries in which highly automated processes are required. A workforce of over 3,500 around the world works on ideas, concepts and solutions for automated production, and supplies products and services for virtually all tasks in the industrial processing of metallic and non-metallic materials. The company’s products and services are presented and marketed by subsidiaries and sales offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia. In 2009 KUKA Systems recorded orders valued at around 615 million euros.