line – Product by Process

the amazing automated manufacturing-assembly line of the Steam Controller.

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Get behind Valve’s fully automated assembly line for the Steam controller, “one of the largest fully automated assembly lines in the US”,including molding of the parts and assembly, it’s not only impressive, it’s almost sexy. “When we first started designing hardware at Valve, we decided we wanted to try and do the manufacturing as well. To achieve our goal of a flexible controller, we felt it was important to have a similar amount of flexibility in our manufacturing process, and that meant looking into automated assembly lines. It turns out…

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Aeron Chair by Herman Miller

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“The process is as important as the results: It’s the individual employees on the line that are suggesting these improvements. At Herman Miller, they average 1,200 “plan-do-check acts”–that is, little proposed changes to the assembly process–ever year. “The biggest thing is to empower people to change the work in ways that matter to them,” says Eric VanDam, Herman Miller’s director of operations in seating” from fast co design: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669397/an-american-made-miracle-how-an-aeron-chair-gets-built-every-17-seconds picture and video by Drew Anthony Smith/Fast Company

Ford Model T assembly

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Historical footage of the Ford Model T assembly line and a quick report on how assembly line changed america.