Identification of Assembly System Configuration for Cyber-Physical Assembly System Planning

2016 ◽  
Vol 840 ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Müller ◽  
Matthias Vette ◽  
Leenhard Hörauf ◽  
Christoph Speicher
Keyword(s):  
Planning Process ◽  
Assembly Planning ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Assembly System ◽  
Assembly Systems ◽  
Virtual Model ◽  
System Configuration ◽  
Virtual Planning ◽  
Actual Configuration ◽  
Modular Structures

To respond to challenges created by an increase of product variants, multi-variant lines are used as today’s assembly systems. In these multi-variant lines different product variants with diverse lot sizes can be efficiently assembled. These assembly systems are characterized by modular structures that allow assembly system adaptation by reconfiguration.The variety of parameters to be considered from the product’s perspective and the correct allocation of different assembly modules increases the complexity when planning these systems. This complexity makes it difficult to successfully plan and implement production processes. Therefore, digital planning tools and models have to be used to schedule new product variants and to verify that the assembly is possible, given by the modules in the assembly line.Due to its ability to reconfigure, the actual assembly system is adaptable to different product variants. But these modifications are performed by the operator on the shop floor and are often neither properly documented nor communicated to the assembly planer. Thus, the configuration status in reality and the virtual model differ from each other. Using the outdated model for planning without taking into account the changes can result in an unrealizable assembly plan.To overcome this problem, the presented paper introduces a method and technical system to identify the actual assembly system configuration before the assembly planning is done. Due to the subsequent update of the virtual model depending on the actual configuration, the assembly planner is supported with the latest version of the assembly system configuration. Furthermore, the assembly planning process is improved, because possible failures are detected in advance in the virtual planning environment.

Agile Montage*/Agile assembly – Assembly planning and assembly system as integral elements of factory planning

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (09) ◽  
pp. 622-627
Author(s):  
P. Burggräf ◽  
M. Dannapfel ◽  
T. Adlon ◽  
A. Riegauf ◽  
K. Müller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Assembly Planning ◽  
Assembly System ◽  
Agile Methods ◽  
Assembly Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Economic Optimization ◽  
Customer Needs ◽  
Factory Planning ◽  
Solution Approach

Produzierende Unternehmen intensivieren aufgrund zunehmend volatiler Kundenbedürfnisse die Anwendung agiler Produktentwicklungsansätze. Ziel des Beitrags ist die Einführung eines Konzepts zur Befähigung dieser dynamischen Produktentwicklung in der Montage. Der integrative Lösungsansatz basiert auf der wirtschaftlichen Optimierung des Agilitätsgrades von Montagesystemen sowie dem selektiven Einsatz agiler Methoden in der traditionell plangetriebenen Montageplanung als Teil der Fabrikplanung.   To meet more volatile customer needs, manufacturing companies increasingly make use of agile product development approaches. This article aims to introduce a concept to enable for dynamic product development in assembly. This integrative solution approach is based on the economic optimization of the degree of agility of assembly systems and on the selective use of agile methods in traditional, plan-driven assembly planning as part of factory planning.

Development of a Methodology for Cost Estimation in Robot Assembly

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Tischner ◽  
A. H. Soni
Keyword(s):  
Cost Estimation ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Industrial Robots ◽  
Assembly Planning ◽  
Assembly System ◽  
Assembly Systems ◽  
Production Volume ◽  
Investment Planning ◽  
Flexible Assembly ◽  
Flexible Operation

Abstract The developments in today’s industries put the companies under increasing pressure concerning time and costs. This forces them to, among other measures, rationalize and automates the manufacturing systems, including the assembly systems. To reduce the risks of investments and enhance the investment planning, accurate calculation methodologies for assembly planning systems are necessary. There are a number of ways to lay out an assembly system. An assembly system may be designed for a manual operation, an automatic operation, or a flexible operation. Industrial robots are extensively used in such flexible assembly systems. Production volume and cost per assembled part depend heavily on how such a flexible cell is designed and on the robot being used. Boothroyd and Dewhurst have proposed an approach to arrive at evaluating robot integrated assembly cells. This approach is based on the manipulation of the part before presenting it for an assembly and the number of robot arms in the assembly cell. It does not account for the flexibility (number of robot axes, specific types of robots) the various industrial robots offer. Consequently, any evaluation made on this basis is expected to provide inaccurate answers.

Tool: Eine Sprachdomäne für die Montageplanung*/A domain specific language for assembly planning – Software-supported planning of human-robot cooperation based on ontologies

2018 ◽  
Vol 108 (09) ◽  
pp. 606-610
Author(s):  
R. Müller ◽  
O. Mailahn ◽  
R. Peifer
Keyword(s):  
Assembly Planning ◽  
Domain Specific Language ◽  
Assembly Systems ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Planning Software ◽  
Robot Cooperation ◽  
Planning Knowledge

Die Planung von Montagesystemen wird durch die Einführung von cyber-physischen Modulen und neuen Formen der Zusammenarbeit von Mensch und Roboter zunehmend komplexer. Ontologien können Planungswissen bezüglich Beziehungen und Restriktionen formal abbilden. Mit der hier beschriebenen Sprachdomäne werden Ontologien für Montageplaner zugänglich und anwendbar. Die Planung kann auf diese Weise beschleunigt und flexibilisiert werden.   The planning of assembly systems is becoming increasingly complex with the introduction of cyber-physical modules and new forms of human-robot cooperation. Ontologies can formally capture planning knowledge in terms of relationships and restrictions. The domain specific language described here makes ontologies accessible and usable for assembly planners. Thus, planning may be accelerated and designed more flexibly.

Assembly System Configuration Design for Reconfigurability Under Uncertain Production Evolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengqian Jiang ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
Maxim A. Dulebenets ◽  
Junayed Pasha
Keyword(s):  
System Throughput ◽  
Assembly System ◽  
Configuration Design ◽  
System Configuration ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Design Evolution ◽  
Product Evolution ◽  
Concurrent Optimization ◽  
The Impact

Assembly system configuration determines the topological arrangement of stations with defined logical material flow among them. The design of assembly system configuration involves (1) subassembly planning that defines subassembly tasks and between-task material flows and (2) workload balancing that determines the task-station assignments. The assembly system configuration should be flexibly changed and updated to cope with product design evolution and updating. However, the uncertainty in future product evolution poses significant challenges to the assembly system configuration design since the higher cost can be incurred if the assembly line suitable for future products is very different from that for the current products. The major challenges include (1) the estimation of reconfiguration cost, (2) unavailability of probability values for possible scenarios of product evolution, and (3) consideration of the impact of the subassembly planning on the task-station assignments. To address these challenges, this paper formulates a concurrent optimization problem to design the assembly system configuration by jointly determining the subassembly planning and task-station assignments considering uncertain product evolution. A new assembly hierarchy similarity model is proposed to estimate the reconfiguration effort by comparing the commonalities among different subassembly plans of current and potential future product designs. The assembly system configuration is chosen by maximizing both assembly hierarchy similarity and assembly system throughput under the worst-case scenario. A case study motivated by real-world scenarios demonstrates the applicability of the proposed method including scenario analysis.

scholarly journals Key Performance Indicators for the Impact of Cognitive Assembly Planning on Ramp-Up Process

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Christian Buescher ◽  
Eckart Hauck ◽  
Daniel Schilberg ◽  
Sabina Jeschke
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Control Unit ◽  
Key Performance Indicators ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Assembly Planning ◽  
Assembly Systems ◽  
Planning Effort ◽  
The Impact

Within the ramp-up phase of highly automated assembly systems, the planning effort forms a large part of production costs. Due to shortening product lifecycles, changing customer demands, and therefore an increasing number of ramp-up processes, these costs even rise. So assembly systems should reduce these efforts and simultaneously be flexible for quick adaption to changes in products and their variants. A cognitive interaction system in the field of assembly planning systems is developed within the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative production technology for high-wage countries” at RWTH Aachen University which integrates several cognitive capabilities according to human cognition. This approach combines the advantages of automation with the flexibility of humans. In this paper the main principles of the system's core component—the cognitive control unit—are presented to underline its advantages with respect to traditional assembly systems. Based on this, the actual innovation of this paper is the development of key performance indicators. These refer to the ramp-up process as a main objective of such a system is to minimize the planning effort during ramp-up. The KPIs are also designed to show the impact on the main idea of the Cluster of Excellence in resolving the so-called Polylemma of Production.

Optimization Analysis of Automated Assembly Systems

1981 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Hitomi ◽  
M. Yokoyama
Keyword(s):  
Assembly System ◽  
Assembly Systems ◽  
Profit Rate ◽  
Automated Assembly ◽  
Optimization Analysis ◽  
Running Speed ◽  
Maximum Profit ◽  
Decision Variables ◽  
Total Profit ◽  
Optimizing Algorithm

Optimization analysis for maximizing the total profit of an automated assembly system consisting of automated assembly machines and operators was performed. In this analysis, concepts of two kinds of breakdowns, which depend on accuracy of parts and on machine running speed were introduced. Based on basic decision variables—accuracy of parts, machine running speed, and number of operators, profit rate of the automated assembly system was maximized through dynamic programming, and an optimizing algorithm for the maximum profit rate was developed with a numerical example.

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