An integrated framework for design, management and operation of reconfigurable assembly systems

Abstract

Manufacturing has to cope with the continuously increasing variety of products, change of volumes and shortening product life cycles. These trends also affect the automotive sector: the frequent introduction of new models, materials and assembly technologies put the suppliers of make-to-order parts under pressure. In this context, the design of assembly systems and their management are of paramount importance for the companies' competitiveness. In this paper, we propose an approach for the design and reconfiguration of modular assembly systems through the integration of different computational tools addressing the design of the system, the optimization of the layout, the planning of reconfiguration actions as well as production planning. Integrating these computational tools and iterating through the resulting workflow and feedback allow to consider the outcomes and dependencies of alternative decision sequences holistically with the objective of an effective and efficient approach to production system design and management. The viability of the approach is demonstrated through the application to an automotive case study

Ease of product assembly through a time-based design methodology

“…Human factors such as defects induced due to operator error were also included. An integrated framework for design, management and operation of reconfigurable assembly systems was presented by Manzini et al (2018). It addressed factors such as large product variety, smaller volumes and shorter product lifecycles.…”

Future trends in management and operation of assembly systems: from customized assembly systems to cyber-physical systems

“…Abbas and ElMaraghy [1] as well as Manzini, Unglert, Gyulai, Colledani, Becker, Monostori and Urgo [14] propose integrated planning approaches for adaptable assembly systems. These are foresightful approaches, since they consider reconfiguration cost of assembly systems due to possible future shifts in demand.…”

“…Manzini, Unglert, Gyulai, Colledani, Becker, Monostori and Urgo [14] design an integrated planning approach for batch assembly systems organized in a cellular layout. The authors specifically target reconfigurable cell architecture, which adapts to changes in demand.…”

A geometrical model for managing surface productivity of U-shaped assembly lines

“…More recent literature adds other objectives to the traditional workstation minimization problem, such as studies on the optimal operations of robots in workstations [13] and how to enable the collaboration of humans and robots on assembly lines [14,15], and the design of cells that can be optimally reconfigured [16,17]. More recent work addresses the ULB problem again but from other perspectives; e.g., Oksuz et al [18] solved the ULB problem by also considering the worker performance.…”