Shimano designs robots for delicate assemblies

Abstract

Low volume means different things to different companies; at Shimano Industrial, the world's largest maker of gears for bicycles, low volume involves production runs of up to 30,000 units/month. Medium volume involves 50,000–100,000 units/month, and to qualify as high volume, runs need to be over 200,000/month. In fact, the biggest run — a crank lever for a bicycle — involves 800,000 units monthly.

Citation

Hartley, J. (1987), "Shimano designs robots for delicate assemblies", Assembly Automation, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 39-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb004207