• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.112-118
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• 1995

In designing assembly lines, it is required that the lines should not only meet the demand of the product, but also minimize the assembly cost associated with the line. For such a purpose, numerous research efforts have been made on either the assembly sequence generation or the assembly line balancing. However, the works dealing with both the research problems have been seldom reported in literature. When assembly sequences are generated without consideration of line balancing, additional cost may be incurred, because the sequences may not guarantee the minimum number of workstations. Therefore, it is essential to consider line balancing in the generation of cost-effective assembly sequences. To incorporate the two research problems into one, this paper treats a single-model and deterministic (SMD) assembly line balancing (ALB) problem, and proposes a new method for generating line-balanced robotic assembly sequences by using a simulated annealing. In this method, an energy function is derived in consideration of the satisfaction of assembly constraints, and the minimization of both the assembly cost and the idle time. Then, the energy function is iteratively minimized and occasionally perturbed by the simulated annealing. When no further change in energy occurs, an assembly sequence with consideration of line balancing is finally found. To show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, a case study for an electrical relay is presented.

• IE interfaces
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.144-152
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• 2009

Assembly line has been recognized as an efficient production system in mass production. However, the recent production environment characterized as mass customization urges production managers to transform a long assembly line to a number of short assembly cells. To maximize the utilization of resources in an assembly cell, it is important to have the line balanced. This paper presents a bucket brigade-based assembly cell. Bucket brigade is a way of coordinating workers who progressively perform a set of assembly operations on a flow line. Each worker follows a simple rule: perform assembly operations on a product until the next worker downstream takes it over; then go back to the previous worker upstream to take over a new assembly job. In this way, the line balances itself. The bucket brigade assembly cell is analyzed and compared with traditional assembly lines and general assembly cells. The paper also discusses some prerequisite requirements and limitations when the bucket brigade assembly cells are employed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.339-350
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• 1994

This paper presents a method for automatic generation of line balanced assembly sequences based on disassemblability and proposes a method of evaluating an assembly work time using neural networks. Since a line balancing problem in flexible assembly system requires a sophisticated planning method, reasoning about line balanced assembly sequences is an important field of concern for planning assembly lay-out. For the efficient inference of line balanced assembly sequences, many works have been reported on how to evaluate an assembly work time at each work station. However, most of them have some limitations in that they use cumbersome user query or approximated assembly work time data without considering assembly conditions. To overcome such criticism, this paper proposes a new approach to mathematically verify assembly conditions based on disassemblability. Based upon the results, we present a method of evaluating assembly work time using neural networks. The proposed method provides an effective means of solving the line balancing problem and gives a design guidance of planning assembly lay-out in flexible assembly application. An example study is given to illustrate the concepts and procedure of the proposed scheme.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.129-138
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• 2001

The paper presents an implementation procedure of assembly line for ABS motor, which is composed of four subassemblies-yoke, grommet, housing and armature. The characteristics of ABS motor and its assembly processes are analysed, and the automation possibility of each process is examined in order to decrease assembly time. The assembly machines and facilities are then selected for automatic assembly, and the layout of the selected facilities is determined. Finally, task allocation of each worker is achieved by assembly line balancing to increase assembly productivity and efficiency. The line efficiency is also analyzed using simulation.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.95-102
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• 2001

The design of automobile body assembly line is one of essential parts for improving the process performance. The major objective of this research is to develop a performance evaluation model for automobile assembly line using a closed queueing network(CQN) and simulation method. In this study we used a two-step approach to compute the performance of the assembly line : first, we used CQN model considering assembly line equipments and the line operating time under the assumption of no failure, and second we used a well-known simulator FACTOR/AIM. Finally we implemented this model on a K automobile company and we have shown the sample results of automobile body assembly line.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.35-39
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• 1980

Although the product line produces a large volume of goods in a relatively short time, once the product line is established there are numerous problems that arise in connection with this product line. One of these problems is the problem of balancing operations or stations in terms of equal times and in terms of the times required to meet the desered rate of production. The objective of line balancing is minimizing the idle time on the line for all combinations of work stations subject to certain restrictions. In general, there are two types of line-balancing situations : (1) assembly line balancing and (2) fabrication line balancing. Two approaches to the assembly line balancing problem have been used. The first assumes a filed cycle time and find the optimum number of work stations. The second approach to the assembly line balancing problem assumes the number of work stations to be fixed and systematically coverages on a solution which minimizes the total delay time by minimizing the cycle time. Here the cycle time is determined by the longest station time. In this paper, by using the second approach method, a general mathematical model, problem solutions, and computer program for the assembly line balancing problem is presented. Data used is obtained from the company which has been confronted with many problems arising in connection with their assembly line.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.83-101
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• 2002

In this thesis presents line balancing problems of two-sided and mixed model assembly line widely used in practical fields using genetic algorithm for reducing throughput time, cost of tools and fixtures and improving flexibility of assembly lines. Two-sided and mixed model assembly line is a special type of production line where variety of product similar in product characteristics are assembled in both sides. This thesis proposes the genetic algorithm adequate to each step in tow-sided and mixed model assembly line with suitable presentation, individual, evaluation function, selection and genetic parameter. To confirm proposed genetic algorithm, we apply to increase the number of tasks in case study. And for evaluation the performance of proposed genetic algorithm, we compare to existing algorithm of one-sided and mixed model assembly line. The results show that the algorithm is outstanding in the problems with a larger number of stations or larger number of tasks.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.117-122
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• 2005

An assembly system (AS), a valuable tool for mass production, is generally composed of a number of workstations and a transport system. While the workstations perform some preplanned operations, the transport system moves the assemblies by special designed pallets from one station to another. One common problem associated with automatic assembly systems is that some assembly operations may have relatively long cycle times. As a consequence, the productivity, as determined by the operations with the longest cycle time, can be reduced significantly. Therefore, special forms of parallel workstations were developed to improve the performance of an assembly system. In this paper, three most commonly used parallel stations: on-line, off-line and tunnel-gated stations in a free transfer assembly system are studied via discrete event simulation. Our findings revealed that the off-line parallel system has the best performance because the two independent parallel stations can lower the buffer requirement; reduce the sensitivity to variability of processing time and balance of a line. On-line parallel systems were found to have a relatively poor performance, because the operations of two parallel stations block each other, and higher buffer capacity is required to achieve similar capacity. The tunnel-gated system was more efficient than the on-line system since the first parallel station can operate independently. More importantly, we have quantified the productivity of the three different strategies mentioned. Engineers can choose the optimal strategies for installing parallel stations under their working environment.

• Proceedings of the KAIS Fall Conference
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• 2009.12a
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• pp.715-718
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• 2009

The assembly line is one of the typical process hard to analyze with mathematical methods including even stochastic approaches, because it includes many manual operations varying drastically depending on operators' skills. In this paper, we suggest the simulation optimization method to design the optimal assembly line of a gas oven. To achieve the optimal design, firstly, we modeled the real gas oven assembly line with actual data, such as assembly procedures, operation rules, and other input parameters and so on. Secondly, we build some alternatives to enhance the line performance based on business rules and other parameters. The DOE(Design Of Experiment) techniques were used for testing alternatives under various situations. Each alternatives performed optimization process with evolution strategy; one of the GA(Genetic Algorithm) techniques. As a result, we can make about 7% of throughputs up with the same time and cost. By this process, we expect the assembly line can obtain the solution compatible with their own problems.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.14 no.23
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• pp.47-55
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• 1991

In automated assembly line, an automatic guided vehicle system(AGVS) represents a mire versatile means of moving materials automatically. In this paper, the vehicles not only provide the transportation medium between workstations but also as mobile workstations. The objective for the developed model is the determination of the appropriate time to control AGV based assembly line in order to minimize production makespan while maximizing the efficient use of vehicles. In this paper, we consider the finished goods of two types which are produced in assembly line. The assembly line is considered with and without queue. Because no buffer are present in case 1. this model seeks to determine the point in time at which vehicles should be launched in the assembly line without experiencing a delay. The case 2 model also seek to determine the vehicle launch times while minimizing production makespan. The assumption in this model is that the maximum queue size cannot exceed 1 at any time.