Reconfiguring flexible machine modules of a PCB assembly line

Abstract

Assembly of electronic components to Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) is a complicated manufacturing process and therefore its control is usually divided into several subtasks which are handled separately. We consider the combined task of determining a machine configuration and line balancing for a single assembly line of interconnected, reconfigurable machine modules and one PCB type in production. The modules can be tailored to the needs of each PCB type by suitable assignments for placement heads, nozzles and feeders. Out of these, the component-tomachine assignment appears to be most difficult and we propose five different solution methods for it; brute force, random, greedy, local search and genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm outperformed the other methods in practical test.

Machine configuration and workload balancing of modular placement machines in multi-product PCB assembly

“…For a fixed feasible machine module configuration, the workload balancing problem is handled using a linear IP method. To look for good configuration candidates, an evolutional algorithm (EA) is applied due to it having provided excellent results for the basic MCLB problem (Toth, Knuutila, and Nevalainen 2010).…”

“…The initial population of module configurations is generated by a greedy method (see Section 4.1). The algorithm is based on the same basic idea as that in (Toth, Knuutila, Nevalainen 2010), but now the generalised nozzle-head and component-nozzle compatibility must be considered in the nozzle-to-head and nozzle-to-component assignments. The integer programming model for the evaluation of the component assignment (i.e.…”

“…Although the mixed-model case is examined in the present study, the configuration problem for modular placement machines also appears in the single model machine set-up strategy; but in the latter without any machine set-ups between the jobs (Toth, Knuutila, and Nevalainen 2010;Rong et al 2011;Guo et al 2012). The same problem also appears in different forms in other branches of industry; see Boysen, Fliedner, and Scholl (2008) for some example application areas.…”

“…The Machine Configuration and (Work) Load Balancing (MCLB) problem for modular gantry-type placement machines was originally discussed by Toth, Knuutila, and Nevalainen (2010) for one product type. In this case, the machine reconfiguration and load balancing are performed for each job change.…”

Estimating the production time of a PCB assembly job without solving the optimised machine control

“…The PCB assembly design and control problems of the tactical level depend on the numbers of PCB types to be produced and on the machines in use (Johnsson 1999). Higher levels of the problem hierarchy include strategic planning of the whole PCB assembly plant (Rogers and Warrington 2004), reconfiguration problem of the modular placement machines (Grunow, Günther, and Schleusener 2003;Toth, Knuutila, and Nevalainen 2010;Rong 2011), job grouping (Knuutila et al 2004;Yilmaz et al 2007) and production line balancing problem (Lapierre, Debargis, and Soumis 2000;Emet et al 2010). Higher levels of the problem hierarchy include strategic planning of the whole PCB assembly plant (Rogers and Warrington 2004), reconfiguration problem of the modular placement machines (Grunow, Günther, and Schleusener 2003;Toth, Knuutila, and Nevalainen 2010;Rong 2011), job grouping (Knuutila et al 2004;Yilmaz et al 2007) and production line balancing problem (Lapierre, Debargis, and Soumis 2000;Emet et al 2010).…”