The practical innovation going into Project Minotaur is also reflected in the design and development of the assembly line that will build it.

“Working within the available space and production goals for the machine, we’re scaling things to squeeze more content into fewer stations,” explained Clay Reinecke, Advanced Manufacturing Engineer.

“We’re being very purposeful in planning, from organization and logistics, to reducing the types of hardware required at each station, along with the number of parts.”

CASE is relying on its deep institutional and personnel expertise to innovate its newest assembly line. [Note: You can read about some of those efforts in the next blog post]

Another innovation is to keep the assembly process untethered to set locations known as monuments.

“Too many times production processes are dictated by tooling literally welded or bolted in places that then restrict activities done before or after them,” Clay said. “Our goal is to keep monuments offline, so we can go open or reset any area, if and when necessary.”

CASE’s embrace of World Class Manufacturing principles (“WCM”) also informs its plans.

“We have set tools from WCM that help us organize carts, assembly aids, and flow in the area,” said Katherine Aude, Launch Manager. “We’re focused on reliability and quality at every step of the manufacturing process, which delivers performance and safety to our customers.”

“It also makes us good stewards of the environment,” she added.