Improving efficiency of material flows in an automotive assembly plant: A case study

Robots in automotive assembly plant are crucial for automation of the plant. As the robots are expensive, they are the main contributor to plant investment. Thus, it is important for the robots to have high reliability. This paper presents the reliability analysis of robots at an automotive assembly plant. The analysis was based on operating hours and frequency of the failures of the robots. The data were acquired from plant maintenance data. Using seven years of failure data, the robots’ mean time between failures (MTBF) and reliability were evaluated. Constant failure rate was assumed in the analysis. From the analysis it is noted that the reliability of the robots at the plant varies from 15% to 62% and 2% to 39% for 10,000 hours and 20,000 hours respectively. These findings could assist the maintenance manager to schedule the maintenance and replacement of the robot at the plant.

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Reliability and availability analysis for robot subsystem in automotive assembly plant: a case study

IOP Conference Series Materials Science and Engineering ◽

10.1088/1757-899x/100/1/012022 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 100 ◽

pp. 012022 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

A F Fudzin ◽

M A A Majid

Keyword(s):

Availability Analysis ◽

Assembly Plant ◽

Automotive Assembly ◽

Reliability And Availability

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Reliability Analysis for Parallel-Serial Robots in Automotive Assembly Plant: A Case Study

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.799-800.1035 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 799-800 ◽

pp. 1035-1039

Author(s):

Ahmad Fauzi Fudzin ◽

Mohd Amin Abd Majid

Keyword(s):

Reliability Analysis ◽

Preventive Maintenance ◽

Production Line ◽

Block Diagram ◽

Assembly Plant ◽

Serial Robots ◽

Automotive Assembly ◽

In Series ◽

Series Configuration

Robot arrangement in the automotive assembly plant in manufacturing environment consists of series and parallel configurations. Robot subsystems at painting lines were configured in series configuration while overall system was configured in parallel. Interruption of operations due to breakdown at both subsystems during operation would affect the production throughput. The robots’ breakdown data for each subsystem were acquired for reliability analysis of parallel-serial configuration of robots. This study is to analyze the serial subsystems robot reliability compared to reliability of robots in overall system in parallel-serial configuration. The seven years actual breakdown data were acquired from the automotive painting plant. By using the reliability block diagram (RBD) method, at the 5000 operating hours, the two subsystems at the painting lines were evaluated. Reliability of the two subsystems are 0.029 and 0.119 respectively. While the overall parallel-serial system has the reliability of 0.145. It is proven that the parallel-serial reliability of the system is better compared to series configuration of the subsystems. With parallel-serial system, the production line would not be interrupted during the corrective or preventive maintenance worked.

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