Case Study

General Motors Automates Body Plug Insertion with FANUC Robots

A longtime partner of FANUC, General Motors uses FANUC technology to automate strenuous processes, improve quality control, and increase productivity in the plug insertion process.

Results

Ergonomic Strain Relief on Employees
Enhanced Error Proofing
Productivity Proofing
A Valuable Relationship With a Reliable Partner

Story

General Motors has a longstanding history of working with FANUC to develop cutting-edge technology. When they needed a solution to reduce the strain on workers and improve the efficiency of the plug insertion process, partnering with FANUC was the best move.

Traditionally, plugs are inserted manually by a team, which can require workers to twist and bend to reach in order to place them. General Motors sought a solution for the system to automatically place the plugs where they needed to go, detect and indicate errors to the operator, and verify that the installation is correct.

FANUC conducted rigorous testing, from stacking and dispensing to plug feeding, to validate the entire system and ensure it was reliable and robust enough to serve General Motors well.

What the automation process really enabled for us is ergonomic relief, so operators don’t have to bend and twist to locate the hole location, and it also gave us that next level of error proofing that was traditionally just a visual check. And the productivity improvement was realized with the automation.

David Trudell

Staff Engineer

FANUC Products Used

M-710iC Series Robots

iRVision 3DL

About General Motors

Founded in 1908 as a holding company, General Motors has become the largest automaker in the United States, with manufacturing plants in eight countries. With its four core brands – Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac – the Fortune 500 company constantly strives to innovate in its production of safe and environmentally-conscious vehicles.

As an employer of more than 90,000 individuals in the United States alone, General Motors invests in the well-being of its workforce through the integration of advanced technology that improves safety and efficiency.