scholarly journals Utilization of Industry 4.0 Related Equipment in Assembly Line Balancing Procedure

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 864 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikola Gjeldum ◽  
Bashir Salah ◽  
Amanda Aljinovic ◽  
Sajjad Khan
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Assembly Line ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Line Balancing ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Production Type ◽  
Equipment Utilization

In recent decades, production in high-volume/low-variety batches is replaced with low-volume/high-variety production type. This type of production demands excessive flows of both material and information. Recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICT), together with the concept of cyber-psychical system (CPS) enable the concept of Industry 4.0 (I4.0). In this paper, the performance of I4.0 related equipment implementation is presented in iterative assembly line balancing (ALB) process of a gearbox assembly line. Largest candidate rule method through spreadsheet simulation was used for tasks reallocations, with the objective to minimize the cycle time when the number of stations is fixed. Utilization of human analysts using snap back method for manual data gathering process still shown advantage over I4.0 equipment utilization in manual ALB. The assembly process is performed in the learning factory environment, and it is considered as very close to real industry process. The major conclusion is that I4.0 is excellent in process data monitoring and product tracking, but activities to be performed to effectively exploit I4.0 is demanding for task reallocations during the balancing procedure. Nevertheless, future enhancements of I4.0 system are listed to bridge this gap and to increase I4.0 system usefulness in the manual assembly line balancing process.

Assembly Line Balancing in Manufacturing Processes: Using Simulation Model

2013 ◽  
Vol 748 ◽  
pp. 1183-1187
Author(s):  
Ali A.J. Adham ◽  
Hamzah Bin Zainuddin ◽  
Fadilah Binti Siali ◽  
Noor Azlinna Binti Azizan
Keyword(s):  
Simulation Model ◽  
Assembly Line ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Line Balancing ◽  
Production Cycle ◽  
Manufacturing Processes ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing Problem ◽  
Line Design ◽  
Optimum Balance

Assembly line design is an important part of the production system in manufacturing processes. An assembly line, which consists of a sequence of workstations, is an efficient method of manufacturing high-volume products such as automobile parts and microcomputers. In designing an assembly line, it is common practice to "balance" the line so that a more uniform flow is maintained. The Assembly Line Balancing (ALB) scheduler evaluates the effect of the different online sequence of parts on production cycle, balances workload and utilization ratio, minimizes span of the assembly line. The simulation model approach in this study to obtain the scenarios which are reducing the unbalancing time. The simulator presented herein, named Assembly Line Simulator (ALS), can be used as supporting tool in finding solutions of the assembly line balancing problem. Throughout the scenarios of the optimum method will be chosen which scenario is represented minimum idle time it will be the optimum balance of the assembly line.

Solving Two–Sided Assembly Line Balancing Problem via Gravitational Search Algorithm

2014 ◽  
Vol 697 ◽  
pp. 450-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Wu ◽  
Qiu Hua Tang ◽  
Li Ping Zhang ◽  
Zi Xiang Li ◽  
Xiao Jun Cao
Keyword(s):  
Assembly Line ◽  
Search Algorithm ◽  
Gravitational Search Algorithm ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Line Balancing ◽  
Task Sequence ◽  
Gravitational Search ◽  
Assembly Line Balancing Problem

Two-sided assembly lines are widely applied in plants for producing large-sized high volume products, such as trucks and buses. Since the two-sided assembly line balancing problem (TALBP) is NP-hard, it is difficult to get an optimal solution in polynomial time. Therefore, a novel swarm based heuristic algorithm named gravitational search algorithm (GSA) is proposed to solve this problem with the objective of minimizing the number of mated-stations and the number of stations simultaneously. In order to apply GSA to solving the TALBP, an encoding scheme based on the random-keys method is used to convert the continuous positions of the GSA into the discrete task sequence. In addition, a new decoding scheme is implemented to decrease the idle time related to sequence-dependent finish time of tasks. The corresponding experiment results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms other well-known algorithms.

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