A three-line discrete appliance sub-assembly plant, and the project in the program where every design decision traces back to one number: units per shift.
The project brief: three parallel production lines combining zone-accumulation conveyors, six-axis robotic welding and material-handling cells, manual assembly stations, and end-of-line test and pack, targeting 960 units per line per 8-hour shift. Every station on every line runs from the same reusable, parameterized state-machine logic block, and every robot cell's cycle time is validated against the line's calculated takt time before it's ever allowed near commissioning.
This module walks the whole project the way a real discrete-manufacturing automation engineer would: structured, modular PLC code organization built on a PackML-derived state machine, a worked conveyor motor sizing calculation, robot cell integration and a worked line takt-time validation, safety system architecture built around a dedicated safety PLC with a worked light-curtain minimum-distance calculation, and HMI/Andon screen design tied to a live OEE trend. The full worked numbers, complete bill of materials, and finished design reasoning are part of the unlocked module below.