Assembly Lines

 Assembly line: is manufacturing line in which a set of sequential

workstations are connected by a continuous material handling system.
 It is determining the allocation of the tasks to an ordered sequence of
stations such that each task is assigned to exactly one station.
 no precedence constraint is violated, and
 some selected performance measure is optimized
 performance measure like minimizing the number of stations,
minimizing cycle time or minimizing delay time .
 Input-Raw materials (work elements)
 Output –Finished product(Assembled unit)
 Assembly Operation
 It is a manufacturing operation in which two or more separate parts
joined to form a new entity. 1
 Components of a new entity are connected together either:
 Permanently or
 Semi permanently
 Permanent joining processes include :-
 Welding
 Brazing
 Soldering and
 Adhesive bonding
 Rivets
 Press fitting
 Expansion fits.
 They combine parts by forming a joint that cannot be easily
disconnected.

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 Semi permanently joining are those processes conveniently
disassembled. They are:

 Screws

 Bolt and nuts

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 Assembly Systems
 There are various methods used in industry.

 The major methods are:-

 Manual Single-Station Assembly

 Manual Assembly systems

 Automated Assembly systems

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 1) Manual Single -Station Assembly
 Consist of a single workplace to accomplish the product or some
major subassembly of the product.

 Generally used on a product that is complex and produced in small

quantities, one or more workers depending on the size of the
product and the production rate.

 Such as machine tools, industrial equipment, aircraft, ships and

complex consumer products (appliances, car,...)

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 2) Manual Assembly Lines
 Are used in high production situations.

 Consist of multiple workstations.

 The work to be performed can be divided into small tasks

 The assembly work(task) is accomplished as the product

(subassembly) is passed from station to station along the line.

 At each workstation one or more human workers perform a portion

of the total assembly work on the product, by adding one or more
components to the existing subassembly.

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 Transfer of Work Between Workstations
 There are two basic ways in which the work is moved on the line
between operator workstations.
 Non mechanical Lines
 Moving Conveyer Lines
A) Non mechanical Lines
 No belt or conveyor is used to move the parts.
 The parts are passed from station to station by hand.
 Problems:
 Starving at station – wait for parts from the preceding station.
 Blocking of station – wait for the next operator to finish the task before
passing along the part. 7
B) Moving Conveyer Lines

 Use a moving conveyor (e.g. belt, convey, chain-in-the-floor)

 Problems:

 Starving can occur as with none-mechanical lines

 Incomplete items are sometimes produced – unable to finish the

current part.

 To control the feed rate of the line:-

 FR: Feed rate

 Vc: conveyor speed

 Sp: Spacing between parts on the moving conveyor

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 FR = Vc / Sp

 The time period (tolerance time ) Tt

 Ls: is determined largely by the operator’s reach at the work station

 Tt = Ls / Vc

The Line Balancing Problem

 The problem is to arrange the individual processing and assembly
tasks at the workstations so that the total time required at each
workstation is approximately the same.

 Nearly impossible to reach perfect balance

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 Things to consider
 Sequence of tasks is restricted, there is a required order
Called precedence constraints

 There is a production rate needed, i.e. how many products needed

per time period

 Design the line to meet demand and within constraints

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 Terminology and Definitions
Minimum Work Element

Total Work Content Time

Workstation Process time

Cycle Time

Precedence Constraints

Balance Delay

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 Minimum Work Element

 Dividing the job into tasks of a rational and smallest

size

 Example: Drill a hole, can’t be divided

 Symbol – Time for element j: Tej

 Tej is a constant

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 Total Work Content Time

 It is the summation of work element times.

n
Twc   Tej
j 1

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 Workstation Process time

 The amount of time for an individual workstation, after individual

tasks have been combined into stations

 Sum of task times = sum of workstation times

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 Cycle time
 Time between parts coming off the line.

 Ideally, the production rate, but may need to be adjusted for

efficiency and down time.

 Established by the bottleneck station, that is station with largest

time

 Where Rp = average production rate (units/hr), Da = annual

demand for the single product to be made on the line (units/yr), S =
number of shifts/wk, H = number of hr per shift
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 Cycle time

 Where Tc= cycle time of the line (min/cycle); E = line efficiency,

the proportion of shift time that the line is up and operating and the
constant 60 converts the hourly production rate to a cycle time in
minutes.

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 Precedence Constraints
 Generally given, determined by the required order of operations

 Draw in a network style for understanding

 Cannot violate these, an element must be complete before the next

one is started

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 Balance Delay
• Measure of line inefficiency due to imbalances in station times.

nTc  Twc
d
nTc

• Where, n=number of workers at stations and is given by

𝑇𝑤𝑐
n=minimum integer≥
𝑇𝑐

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 Example
A small electrical appliance is to be produced on a single model assembly line.
The work Content of assembling the product has been reduced to the work
elements listed in below. The table also lists the standard times that have been
established for each element as well as the precedence order in which they must
be performed. The line is to be balanced for an annual demand of 100,000 unit/yr.
The line will operate 50 wk/yr, 5 shifts/wk, and 7.5 hr/shift. Manning level will be
one worker per station. Previous experience suggests that the uptime efficiency for
the line will be 96%, and repositioning time lost per cycle will be 0.08 min.
Determine: (a) total work content time Twc (b) required hourly production rate Rp
to achieve the annual demand, (c) cycle time Tc (d) theoretical minimum number
of workers required on the line, and (e) service time Ts to which the line must be
balanced.
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Work Elements Te(min) Must Be Preceded By

1 0.2 -

2 0.4 -

3 0.7 1

4 0.1 1,2

5 0.3 2

6 0.11 3

7 0.32 3

8 0.6 3,4

9 0.27 6,7,8

10 0.38 5,8

11 0.5 9,10

12 0.12 11 20
Methods (Heuristic) To Analyze LBP
Largest Candidate Rule

Kilbridge and Wester Method (KWM)

Ranked Positional Weight (RPW)

End of Assembly Line!!!

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 Introduction to Transfer Line
 A transfer line is a manufacturing system which
consists of a predetermined sequence of
machines connected by an automated material
handling system and designed for working on a
very small family of parts.

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 Analysis of Transfer Lines

 Three problem areas must be considered:

1. Line balancing

 To divide the total work load among workstations as evenly as

possible

2. Processing technology

 Theory and principles about the manufacturing or assembly

processes used on the line

3. System reliability - two cases:

 Transfer lines with no internal parts storage

 Transfer lines with internal storage buffers 23

 Basic Terminology and Performance Measures

 Assumptions about the operation of the transfer lines and rotary

indexing machines:

 (1) The workstations perform processing operations, such as

machining, not assembly;

 (2) processing times at each station are constant, though not

necessarily equal;

 (3) synchronous transfer of parts; and (4) no internal storage

buffers.

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 In the operation of an automated production line:

» parts are introduced into the first workstation and

» are processed and

» transported at regular intervals to succeeding stations.

 This interval defines the ideal cycle time Tc of the production line.

 Tc= max{Tsi} + Tr...Eq.1

 where Tc, - ideal cycle time on the line (min); Tsi= the processing
time at station i(min); and Tr,= repositioning time, called the
transfer time here (min).

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 In the operation of a transfer line, random breakdowns and planned
stoppages cause downtime on the line.
 Common Reasons for Downtime on an Automated Production Line
 Tool failures at workstations
Tool adjustments at workstations
Scheduled tool changes
Limit switch or other electrical malfunctions
Mechanical failure of a workstation
Mechanical failure of the transfer system
Stock outs of starting work units
Insufficient space for completed parts
Preventive maintenance on the line
Work break 26
 These downtime occurrences cause the actual average production
cycle time of the line to be longer than the ideal cycle time given
by eq. 1

 The actual average production time Tp

 Tp=Tc+FTd…Eq.2

 where F = downtime frequency, (line stops/cycle); and Td =

downtime per line stop, (min)

 The downtime Td includes the time for the repair crew to swing
into action, diagnose the cause of the failure, fix it, and restart the
line. Thus, FTd = downtime averaged on a per cycle basis,

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 One of the important measures of performance on an automated
transfer line is production rate, which can be computed as the
reciprocal of Tp:

…Eq.3

 where , Rp = actual average production rate (pc/min), and Tp is the

actual average production time from Eq. 2 (min). It is of interest to
compare this rate with the ideal production rate given by

 …Eq.4

 where Rc, = ideal production rate (pc/min).

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 Line efficiency ,E (proportion up time) can be calculated as
follows:

 …Eq.5

 Proportion of downtime on the line D, which is given by;

 ….Eq.6

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 Cost per unit produced expressed as the sum of these three factors;

Cpc = Cm + CoTp +Ct…Eq.7

 where Cpc=cost per piece (birr/pc); Cm = cost of starting material

(birr/pc); Co = cost per minute to operate the line (birr/min), Tp =
average production time per piece (min/pc); and Ct, = cost of
tooling per piece (birr/pc).

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 EXAMPLE Transfer Line Performance
 A 20 station transfer line is being proposed to machine a certain
component currently produced by conventional methods. The proposal
received from the machine tool builder states that the line will operate at
a production rate of 50 pc/hr at 100% efficiency. From similar transfer
lines, it is estimated that breakdowns of all types will occur with a
frequency F = 0.10 breakdown per cycle and that the average downtime
per line stop will be 8.0 min. The starting casting that is machined on the
line costs $3.00 per part. The line operates at a cost of $75.00/hr. The 20
cutting tools (one tool per station) last for 50 parts each, and the average
cost per tool = $2.00 per cutting edge. Based on this data, compute the
following: (a) production rate, (b) line efficiency and (c) cost per unit
piece produced on the line.
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32
Example

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Topics To be Included For Final
Exam
Conveyor System
AGV System
Group Technology
Assembly Lines
Transfer Lines

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