Design of Assembly Systems – Assembly

lines, cells and shops

(second part)
Assembly systems – general features

 Technology
 Components assembly to make groups, sub-groups and finished products.
Operation can be reversible (or irreversible, e.g., welding)
 Free technology route, with degrees of freedom
 Low relevance of process technology parameters
 Process flow is synthetic
 Management
 Relevance of management parameters (WIP, synchronization, lead time,
delay, ...)
 Cost structure
 Low relevance of fixed assets, depending on utilization and customization
of machinery
 A lot of manual operations cause relevance of workforce utilization (focus
on MANUAL)
Assembly systems – general features

 Assembly system is composed by:

 Workstations
 Handling systems (belt, roller, and overhead conveyors, AGVs, forklift
trucks, etc.) for parts (components) and WIPs (assemblies and
subassemblies)
 Assembly tasks do not usually require specific tools
 Need of correctly “feeding” the workstations
 Small buffers in each workstations (for small and cheap
pieces)
 Use of overhead conveyors to bring (often large and
heavy) components to workstations synchronously with
respect to the main assembly (WIP)
 Use of assembly kit: set of assembly and components
(and specific tools)
Assembly systems – general features

 Three independent axes for classification:

 Layout configuration
 Production mix management
 Task organization
 Reciprocal movement of assembly, operator
& components
Assembly systems – general features

 Classification according to the layout configuration

Fixed Position *

LAYOUT Assembly Shop *

Assembly Cell

Assembly Line
Assembly systems – general features

 Classification according to reciprocal movements

 Operator-Assembly
 Operator  Assembly
 Assembly  Operator

 Assembly-Components
 Assembly  Components
 Components  Assembly

 “” = towards
Assembly systems – general features

 Fixed position assembly

 Assembly shop and Assembly cell -> both manual and

automated
 Assembly line
Assembly shop – general features
An assembly shop consists of a series of stations and each
station (generally, more than one station) is assigned a phase
of the assembly process of a product type.

A mix of different product types can be produced within the

assembly shop and its stations.
Examples
Examples
Examples
Assembly shop – Strengths & Weaknesses
 Strengths
 The stations (phases) are decoupled by buffers
 The cycle time is not a constraint
 The flexibility is high
 Mix, product and expansion flexibility

 Weaknesses
 Investment depends on the level of automation of the
system
 It might be difficult to manage the flows of products
and components
 The complexity of production planning and control can
cause bottlenecks and idle-times
Assembly cell

 Assembly cell: suitable solution for the assembly of a

medium range of medium volume products
 In assembly cells the product moves during assembly through a
number of stations with some flexibility in its trajectory (slightly
different flows for different products)
 In manual assembly cells, the organization of work is based on
team-work following similar rules and organizational solutions
adopted for manufacturing cells
 Normally in an assembly cell, the operator follows the product being
assembled, its mean that the complete assembly process can be
made by the operator together with product testing and quality
assurance
 Operators can be given production responsibilities regarding the cell
 It is easy to allocate to cell the testing and adjusting (and repairing)
of assembled product.
Assembly cell

 Example:
 Cell assembly of electro-mechanical products in
medium volumes.
 Main features of the solution:
 Assembly workbench for 2 operators
 First operator executes product assembly
 Second operator executes the testing and
adjusting of the product.
Some more
information
about
assembly line

15
Types of assembly lines

Depending on the way the material handling

system works, assembly lines can be:
paced
un-paced

16
Types of assembly lines

Assembly Line Paced line (constrained; always synchronous)

(Manual) In a paced assembly production system typically a
common cycle time is given which restricts process
Paced times at all stations. The pace is either kept up by a so
Intermittent called intermittent transport, where the workpiece
comes to a full stop at every station, but is
Continuous automatically transferred as soon as a given time
span is elapsed, or by a continuously advancing
Unpaced
material handling device, e.g. a conveyor belt, which
Asynchronous forces operators to finish their operations before the
workpiece has reached the end of the respective
Synchronous station.
Types of assembly lines

Assembly Line Unpaced line (non-constrained)

(Manual) In unpaced lines, workpieces are transferred
whenever the required operations are completed,
Paced rather than being bound to a given time span.
Intermittent It can be further distinguished as to whether all
stations pass on their workpieces simultaneously
Continuous (synchronous) or whether each station decides on
transference individually (asynchronous).
Unpaced
Under synchronous movement of workpieces, all
Asynchronous stations wait for the slowest station to finish all
operations before workpieces are transferred at the
Synchronous same point in time.
Paced lines

19
Machine-paced lines

The movement of pieces is paced by a timer and

given by the cycle time of the line

 Strengths
 Cycle time and production capacity are perfectly
controlled
Weaknesses
 Probability of no completion (at the line stations)
and problems of unfinished pieces

20
Operator-paced lines

The movement of pieces is paced by the

operators: the material handling system moves
only after all operators have given their approval

 Strengths
 No problem of unfinished pieces

 Weaknesses
 Cycle time is variable and it is determined by the
slowest operator

21
Continuous flow paced lines

 The material handling system moves at a constant

speed and operators follow the piece on which
they have to perform the assembly tasks (or they
move with it on a platform)

22
Continuous flow paced lines

Case 1: operators can’t stop the line

 Strengths
Cycle time and production capacity are perfectly
controlled
 Weaknesses
Probability of no completion (at the line
stations) and problems of unfinished pieces

23
Continuous flow paced lines

Case 2: operators can stop the line

 Strengths
No problem of unfinished pieces
 Weaknesses
Cycle time and production capacity are not
perfectly controlled

24
Unpaced lines
Unpaced lines

 Strengths
 No problem of unfinished pieces
 Cycle time can be exceeded, but only occasionally
(i.e. problems of blocking and starvation)
 Weaknesses
 Cycle time and production capacity are not perfectly
controlled
Examples
Examples
Design of a manual assembly line

 Definition of the balancing constraints

 Evaluation of the time of each assembly operation
 Calculation of the cycle time

The design consists of Assembly Line Balancing (ALB)

Design of a manual assembly line

 Assembly process

Assembly Graph
(showing precedence
relationships amongst
operations)
Balancing constraints

 Cycle time
 Precedence relationships among operations
 Incompatibility between operations that cannot
be assigned to the same station
 Opportunity or necessity to assign some
operations to the same station
 Constraints related to space
 Constraints related to workers
 Constraints related to the material feeding
Balancing objectives

 Technical objectives
 Minimizing the number of stations, given the cycle time
 Minimizing the cycle time, given the number of stations
 Minimizing the total idle time

IT  n  CT  i 1 ti
N

where:
n = number of stations
CT = cycle time
N = number of assembly operations
ti= time to perform operation i (i.e. unit working time)
Balancing objectives

 Technical objectives
 Minimizing the probability of no completion
 in a machine-paced line, or
 in a continuous flow line, in case the operator can’t stop the line
 Minimizing the probability that the times of operations in
one or more stations exceeds CT
 in an operator-paced line, or
 in a continuous flow line, in case the operator can stop the line
 Balancing objectives

 Economical objectives
 Minimizing the total expected cost (TEC)
TEC = LC + E_CUT
LC = line cost (equipment cost + operators cost)
E_CUT = expected cost of unfinished operations (i.e. tasks)
Models for line balancing

 Linear Programming (optimal)

 Maximum fixed utilization rate (heuristic)
 Simple method, without priority rules (i.e. the first available
operation is assigned)
 With local priority rules for assigning priorities, such as:
 MaxDur (longest processing time)
 MaxNFol (largest number of immediately following tasks/operations)
 With global priority rules, such as:
 MaxFol (largest number of following tasks/operations) et similia
 Ranked Positional Weighting

 Probability of no completion
Models for line balancing

#1 Select station Select station

SELECT i=i+1 SELECT i=i+1
NEXT NEXT #2
STATION STATION

Allocate the operation Allocate the operation to

to station i station i
ALLOCATE ALLOCATE
OPERATION OPERATION

S Tk £ Ts (time
NO
available at
station?)
YES NO
 Tk≤ Ts x Ui* YES

Trend for utilisation

Ui* = Required Limit of utilisation (0<Ui*<1)
U i* Tmi <= Ts x Ui*

Stations
1 2 3 4 5
Line balancing – Probability of no-completion

For each task the following constraint has to be

satisfied:

Pk ≤ P*

where:
Pk = probability of no-completion of task k
P* = maximum probability of no-completion
Probability of no-completion

Steps
1. Calculate the remaining time related to task k
RTk  CT   ti
iS
where:
CT = cycle time
ti = mean time of task i (time required to
perform task i)
S = set of tasks assigned to the operator (task k
included)
Probability of no-completion

2. Calculate the variable associated to the remaining

time:
RTk
Zk 

iS
i
2

where:
σi = standard deviation of the time required to
perform task i
Probability of no-completion

3. Φ(Zk) is the probability of completion

Standard normal distribution

Probability of no-completion
Probability of no-completion

4. Therefore the probability of no-completion is

Pk = 1 – Φ(Zk)
Example

Station x
P* = 0.1 CT = 100” PI?
Task (ti ; σi) RTI = 100” – (56”+15”+12”+12”) = 5”
D (56’’; 5’’) √(5 +1 +0.8 +0.8 ) = 5.22
2 2 2 2
E (15’’; 1’’) ZI = 0.96
H (12’’;
Φ(ZI) = 0.8315
0.8’’)
I (12’’; 0.8’’) PI = 1 - Φ(ZI) = 0.1685 > P*
The constraint (PI ≤ P*) is not satisfied
Manual assembly systems – general features

 Assembly line
 Single-model
 Multi-model
 Mixed-model

44
Multi-model lines – general features

 Products are made in batches

 Model variations can be wide
 Problems
 Keeping high inventories, typical of batch production
 Determining the cycle time and the number of stations
related to each model
 Determining the batch size and sequence in which the
different models have to be launched onto the line

45
Multi-model line balancing

1. Calculate the minimum number of stations of the line

 (Q 
j j iS j
Tij )
K* 
H 
where:
Qj = quantity of model j (yearly demand)
Sj = set of tasks related to model j
Tij = mean time of task i of model j
H = number of available hours (available time)
α = maximum value of the utilization rate (0    1)

46
Multi-model line balancing

2. Calculate the cycle time for each model j

 iS j
Tij
CT j 
K *

3. Balance the line for each model j and determine

the number of stations Kj**
4. Adjust the line balancing if needed (e.g. keeping
the same number of stations for all models)

47
Multi-model line balancing

5.Verify the feasibility of the solution

Q j j  CT j   j SUT j NB j  H

where
SUTj = setup time related to model j
NBj = number of batches of model j

Remark: the verification also regards transient periods when models are
changed (dependent on production sequencing)

48
Mixed-model lines – general features
 Different models can be assembled simultaneously
without batching
 Production rates of different models can be
adjusted as product demand changes
 Problems
 Reducing / eliminating setup
 Getting the right components to each station for the
model currently there
 Determining the sequence in which different models
have to be launched onto the line
 Managing flows when parallel stations are used
49
Mixed-model lines – production sequencing

Objectives
 Minimizing the probability of no completion

 Keeping a constant rate of usage of all components used

by the line

50
Mixed-model lines – line balancing

Objectives
 Minimizing the number of stations, given the cycle time
(line balancing)
 Minimizing the probability of no completion (station
balancing)

51
Mixed-model line balancing

1. Calculate the Balancing Index within the stations

(station balancing)

2
M
 M

ST
  t jk   t wk   w 
j 1  
BI within _ the _ stations  
w 1
M
k 1
t
j 1
jk  j

Technical objectives:
 lower the BI, better the balance within each line station

52
Mixed-model line balancing

where
 k = index of the station
 j, w= index of the model
 ST = number of stations
 M= number of different models
 tjk= mean time of the tasks of model j assigned to station k
Qj = quantity of model j that has to be produced
 

M
 Q = total quantity that has to be produced j 1
Qj
Qj
 j = share dedicated to model j within the total quantity  j  Q
(similarly w)

53
Mixed-model line balancing

2. Calculate the Balancing Index along the line

(line balancing)
2
ST  ST TM 
   TM k   
y
BI along _ the _ line 
k 1  y 1 ST 
M
where TM k   t jk   j
j 1

Technical objectives:
 lower the BI, better the balance along the line

54
References

 Garetti,
M., Design of production systems,
FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2015
 Garetti, M., Lezioni di progettazione degli impianti
industriali. CUSL, 2010
 Reid,
R. D.; Sanders, N. R., Operations
Management. 2nd edition, Wiley, 2005
 Slack,N.; Chambers, S.; Johnston, R.,
Operations Management. 4th edition, Pearson
Education, 2003
Design of Assembly Systems – Assembly
lines – Unpaced systems
Design of unpaced lines – buffer size

 Buffers allow for partial independence between the

stations, thereby protecting the line against assembly
time variability.

57
Effect of buffer in a line – Example 1

ST = 30’’ (40 %)
ST = 72’’ (50 %)
ST = 60’’ ST = 120’’ (10 %)

Station 1 Station 2

Perfect line balancing (on average)

CV of assembly times in station 2

58
Design of unpaced lines – buffer size

 CV (Coefficient of Variation of the times of the assembly

tasks) determines the production capacity (CV = standard
deviation / mean)

59
Design of unpaced lines – buffer size

 Buffer size may have important influence:

 buffers enable to limit the reduction of production capacity of the
line, due to assembly time variability;
 importance of buffers increases with the amount of assembly time
variability.

 Buffers lead to higher investment / space requirement;

therefore, it is crucial to find the optimal buffer size.

 The optimal buffer size is influenced by the goodness of

assembly line balancing.

60
Design of continuous flow lines – station length

 The station length allows to insert a time buffer (i.e. an

excess time) to protect the line against assembly time
variability, thereby limiting the problems of unfinished
pieces.

D = CT * V = V / PC
where:
CT = cycle time
V = conveyor speed (constant)
PC = production capacity

61
Design of continuous flow lines – station length

FT ≥ CT L/V≥D/V L≥D
where:
FT = flow time
CT = cycle time
V = conveyor speed (constant)

62
Design of continuous flow lines – station length

L≥D reduces probability of no completion

 Defining the station length is equivalent to defining the

buffer size:
 buffers enable to limit the problems of unfinished pieces, thus
reducing the impact on the production capacity of the line.

63
Design of continuous flow lines – station length

Open stations

L≥D reduces probability of no completion

64
Design of Assembly Systems – Automated
assembly line
Outline

 General features
 Examples

 System design
Assembly systems – general features

 Fixed position assembly

 Assembly shop

 Assembly line -> automated assembly line (transfer)

67
Assembly line – general features
Each assembly line consists of a series of stations where
the product is progressively assembled.

68
Assembly line – Example

69
Assembly line – Example
Example of vibratory feeders (suiting different applications
and component shapes and sizes).

70
Assembly line – Example

71
Assembly line – Example

72
Automated assembly

Automated assembly is performed by using assembly lines, assembly

robotized workstations and assembly cells.
It must be taken into account that the current technology does not allow
to perform assembly operations in which complicated handling or visual
inspection is required, at competitive cost-benefit conditions.

On the contrary, when the assembly process is well defined and

standardized and the product volume is high, automated assembly lines
are used by many years (e.g. assembly of single-use syringe, ballpoint
pens,...). High speed, mainly mechanical based lines, are used in these
situations.

Here, an important aspect to be considered is the implementation of

design for assembly methodologies in the product development phase
because this can greatly simplify the design of the assembly system
equipment.
 Automated assembly

Automated assembly cells are flexible assembly systems based on

the concept of the automated assembly of a family of similar products,
taking into account the possibility to perform the same types of operations
and to use the same types of fixtures, tools (e.g. robot grippers) and
components for the given family of products.

However, due to current automated technology limitations, the similarity of

products must be high so to be possible to realize cost effective
assembly cells.
 Automated assembly

 Simple robotized arm (pick and place)

 Programmable robot
 Automated assembly

Circular machines are made by a rotating table on which the product assembly is put; transfer of
product from the various assembly stations in a synchronous way is performed. One or two
stations are dedicated to product input / output to/from the assembly machine. Solution is used
for small products. Cycle time is very short (in the range from 0,5 to 2-3 seconds).
 Automated assembly
Linear machines are made by a roller transfer line on which pallets move in asynchronous
way by friction rollers. Assembly stations are placed along the transfer line. Pallet is blocked by
suitable equipment when it enters a station.

Buffers can be provided among stations. Pallets can

wait in buffers thank to slip by friction rollers.
Solution is used for small products, when many
stations are required. Cycle time is short (in the
range from 1 to 5 seconds typically)