Automotive Assembly Line Research Articles

Application of AHP for Ranking of Total Productive Maintenance Pillars

Total Productive Maintenance—TPM is widely being used in industries for manufacturing excellence. TPM is based on its eight pillars. Successful Implementation of TPM from its kick-off to final stage depends on in-depth knowledge of these pillars. The purpose of the paper is to rank eight pillars of TPM according to their importance with respect to four parameters: Productivity, Cost, Quality and Delivery in Time, by using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) a multiple criteria decision-making methodology. A pairwise comparison of TPM pillars is done by use of AHP method, by considering a case of automotive industries in India. Ranking of TPM pillars is proposed to set guidelines to decide the weightage of each pillar in terms of major factors to improve Overall Equipment Efficiency. This in terms will guide management to give proper preference and allocate fund at proper time to proper pillar. The ranking suggested suites for automotive sector and assembly lines. By varying the judgmental rating the new ranking can be obtained from the suggested guidelines on similar basis.

Design and simulation of integration system between automated material handling system and manufacturing layout in the automotive assembly line

Material handling system (MHS) is an important part for the productivity plant and has recognized as an integral part of today’s manufacturing system. Currently, MHS has growth tremendously with its technology and equipment type. Based on the case study observation, the issue involving material handling system contribute to the reduction of production efficiency. This paper aims to propose a new design of integration between material handling and manufacturing layout by investigating the influences of layout and material handling system. A method approach tool using Delmia Quest software is introduced and the simulation result is used to assess the influences of the integration between material handling system and manufacturing layout in the performance of automotive assembly line. The result show, the production of assembly line output increases more than 31% from the current system. The source throughput rate average value went up to 252 units per working hour in model 3 and show the effectiveness of the pick-to-light system as efficient storage equipment. Thus, overall result shows, the application of AGV and the pick-to-light system gave a large significant effect in the automotive assembly line. Moreover, the change of layout also shows a large significant improvement to the performance.

An analysis on neck and upper limb musculoskeletal symptoms in Portuguese automotive assembly line workers

Assembly lines are related to health risks and work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD), particularly of the neck and upper limbs (WULMSD). The assessment of perceived musculoskeletal symptoms is essential to WULMSD prevention, but studies in this field are lacking. A cross sectional survey on assembly line workers (n=270) was performed. The objective of this study was to analyze the frequency and distribution of upper limb musculoskeletal symptoms in assembly line workers. Participants were predominantly men, with ages between 30 and 40 years. Neck and upper limbs pain/discomfort were the most reported symptoms (35.9%), with intensity predominantly moderate or severe. General Health Status and past musculoskeletal injury were the variables more related to the existence of musculoskeletal symptoms; longer working life in the same company, as under 5 years, were related to higher intensity of symptoms. An early identification of musculoskeletal symptoms and health surveillance over time is of most importance to develop WRULMSD prevention measures.

Modular configuration and control concept for the implementation of human-robot-cooperation in the automotive assembly line

The automotive industry is facing significant challenges due to shortened product lifecycles, increased product variances, and fluctuating markets. The current assembly systems are unable to handle the increased requirements for mass customization, so they need to be optimized with new technologies. Human-robot collaboration has evolved as a solution to overcome these difficulties and create flexible and customizable automation processes. To simplify the integration of human-robot cooperation into the automotive assembly line and expand the range of applications a methodology for the implementation of cooperative robot systems into the assembly line is introduced. This paper presents a modular means of production kit combined with an integration- and control concept. This will allow for a flexible and easy implementation and reconfiguration of cooperative robot systems.

Auto-Generated Specification of Assembly Units by Formalized Requirements for a higher Maturity in the Engineering Process

Today’s engineering work flow of resources, e.g. units of automotive assembly lines or robotic cells in the body shop, shows up some gaps in provision of information in different engineering disciplines like mechanical-, electrical- or software engineering. The common issue is addressed by the kind of description of the technical and functional needs that mostly production planners are using in the planning phase. This article focuses the gap of describing required resources and introduces a method to auto-generate formalized object-related requirements by using a formalized process-description language. The general functionality of the method is presented by two use cases. Further, a way to exchange and provide this auto-generated engineering data in the engineering work flow is introduced by a suggested implementation in ReqIF. Towards seamless engineering data provision a call for integration of the ReqIF in AutomationML is given.

Application of Improved Genetic Algorithm to Two-side Assembly Line Balancing

Taking an automotive interior assembly line as the research object, a mathematic model is established which include the two-side effect as constraints. An improved genetic algorithm is presented to solve the two-side assembly line balancing problem. The encoding and decoding method is designed in the algorithm. The fitness function is constructed, the initial population selection method and the choice mechanism is determined to fit the algorithm. The crossover and mutation method of the population is presented. Furthermore, the numerical result shows that the reduction of the number of workstation and a better balance rate can be obtained by proposed improved genetic algorithm which is superior to the normal one.

Scheduling the in-house logistics distribution for automotive assembly lines with just-in-time principles

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the just-in-time (JIT) in-house logistics problem for automotive assembly lines. A point-to-point (P2P) JIT distribution model has been formulated to specify the destination station and parts quantity of each delivery for minimizing line-side inventory levels.Design/methodology/approachAn exact backtracking procedure integrating with dominance properties is presented to cope with small-scale instances. As for real-world instances, this study develops a modified discrete artificial bee colony (MDABC) metaheuristic. The neighbor search of MDABC is redefined by a novel differential evolution loop and a breadth-first search.FindingsThe backtracking method has efficaciously cut unpromising branches and solved small-scale instances to optimality. Meanwhile, the modifications have enhanced exploitation abilities of the original metaheuristic, and good approximate solutions are obtained for real-world instances. Furthermore, inventory peaks are avoided according to the simulation results which validates the effectiveness of this mathematical model to facilitate an efficient JIT parts supply.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is applicable only if the breakdown of transport devices is not considered. The current work has effectively facilitated the P2P JIT logistics scheduling in automotive assembly lines, and it could be modified to tackle similar distribution problems featuring time-varying demands.Originality/valueBoth limited vehicle capacities and no stock-outs constraints are considered, and the combined routing and loading problem is solved satisfactorily for an efficient JIT supply of material in automotive assembly lines.

Lean Assessment Tool for Workstation Design of Assembly Lines

Efficiently designed workstations are essential to provide both flexibility and mass production in an effective way. Unfortunately, it is common to find industrial workstations built without a purposeful design. The design of the workstation, oriented to both users and tasks requirements, allows organisations to increase their production indicators (less time, space and cost) and quality levels. Within the present paper, an assessment tool was developed to address a literature gap regarding the lack of tools to evaluate Workstation Design, particularly in assembly lines. The concept of “Hierarchy of Workstation needs” is introduced for prioritising the requirements to achieve full performance in workstations. The concept is visualised as a pyramid split in four levels to achieve excellence: functionality, effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. Seven requirements were identified for Workstation Design, namely: “Health and Safety”, “Work environment, cleanliness and orderliness”, “Waste elimination”, “Inventory and material logistics”, “Flexibility”, “Visual Management” and, lastly, “Quality”. An evaluation model and a tool to assess each requirement was developed based on lean and ergonomic aspects and specific for workstation design, which it is difficult to found in other assessment tools. This model has the form of a checklist that is based on the current best practices in Workstation Design of assembly lines. The assessment tool was validated in an automotive assembly line and based on the results obtained, improvements in the associate working zones, workstation dimensions, storage areas or parts feeding system are introduced to improve “Waste elimination” and “Inventory and material logistics”.

Scheduling in-house transport vehicles to feed parts to automotive assembly lines

Due to exorbitant product variety, very limited space, and other factors, organizing efficient and timely deliveries of parts and subassemblies to final assembly within the factory is one of the most pressing problems of modern mixed-model assembly production. Many automobile producers have implemented the so-called “supermarket” concept to transfer material to the assembly line frequently and in small lots. Supermarkets are decentralized logistics areas on the shop floor where parts are intermediately stored for nearby assembly cells, to be ferried there by small transport vehicles (called tow trains or tuggers). This paper tackles the operational problem of drawing up schedules for these tow trains, such that the assembly line never starves for parts while also minimizing in-process inventory, thus satisfying just-in-time goals. We prove strong NP-completeness of the problem and present exact and heuristic solution methods. In a computational study, the procedures are shown to perform very well, solving realistic instances to (near-)optimality in a matter of minutes, clearly outperforming the simple cyclic schedules commonly used in industrial practice. We also provide some managerial insight into the right degree of automation for such a part feeding system.

Improving Energy Efficiency for the Vehicle Assembly Industry: A Discrete Event Simulation Approach

This paper presented a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model for investigating and improving energy efficiency in vehicle assembly line. The car manufacturing industry is one of the highest energy consuming industries. Using Rockwell Arena DES package; a detailed model was constructed for an actual vehicle assembly plant. The sources of energy considered in this research are electricity and fuel; which are the two main types of energy sources used in a typical vehicle assembly plant. The model depicts the performance measurement for process- specific energy measures of painting, welding, and assembling processes. Sound energy efficiency model within this industry has two-fold advantage: reducing CO2 emission and cost reduction associated with fuel and electricity consumption. The paper starts with an overview of challenges in energy consumption within the facilities of automotive assembly line and highlights the parameters for energy efficiency. The results of the simulation model indicated improvements for energy saving objectives and reduced costs.

First Application of Robot Teaching in an Existing Industry 4.0 Environment: Does It Really Work?

This article reports three case studies on the usability and acceptance of an industrial robotic prototype in the context of human-robot cooperation. The three case studies were conducted in the framework of a two-year project named AssistMe, which aims at developing different means of interaction for programming and using collaborative robots in a user-centered manner. Together with two industrial partners and a technological partner, two different application scenarios were implemented and studied with an off-the-shelf robotic system. The operators worked with the robotic prototype in laboratory conditions (two days), in a factory context (one day) and in an automotive assembly line (three weeks). In the article, the project and procedures are described in detail, including the quantitative and qualitative methodology. Our results show that close human-robot cooperation in the industrial context needs adaptive pacing mechanisms in order to avoid a change of working routines for the operators and that an off-the-shelf robotic system is still limited in terms of usability and acceptance. The touch panel, which is needed for controlling the robot, had a negative impact on the overall user experience. It creates a further intermediate layer between the user, the robot and the work piece and potentially leads to a decrease in productivity. Finally, the fear of the worker of being replaced by an improved robotic system was regularly expressed and adds an additional anthropocentric dimension to the discussion of human-robot cooperation, smart factories and the upcoming Industry 4.0.

Design guidelines for remote laser welding in automotive assembly lines

Remote laser welding which has benefits for both productivity and energy saving is receiving increased attention for automotive assembly lines. Introducing this innovative equipment requires a redesign process for assembly elements, for example to substitute resist spot welding with remote laser welding. The mating surfaces related to the welding need to be updated as well, but this is complicated when the shape design includes manufacturing and assembly elements based on current practice which hide the design intent. The challenge is to establish guidelines with the design parameters of automotive door frames and the process parameters of the joining process in order to maintain the design intent. In order to maintain the original design intent of the process planner, the author proposes a propagation model for the production stage which is defined as the interplay between parameters and quantitative comparison. The process parameters of remote laser welding are applied to the flange of the door frame. Also, the shape of each flange is synchronised with the changes according to the result of a quantitative comparison of the productivity and eco-efficiency. A design guideline tool to redesign the flanges was developed inside a commercial CAD system to show the proposed concept. Five flanges of a car door were subjected to redesign for introducing 4-kw remote laser welding with considerations of eco-efficiency, process time and weight change. The tools are shown to illustrate how to maintain design intent in the redesign process, and the concept was realised in a commercial CAD system.

Effect of Job Rotation Types on Productivity, Accident Rate, and Satisfaction in the Automotive Assembly Line Workers

AbstractThis study investigates different autonomous job rotation types to analyze their impacts on productivity, accident rate, and worker's satisfaction. The subjects of research were 422 assembly‐line units in 3 production plants from an automobile company. The preferred rotation types and workers’ satisfaction scores in the 422 units were surveyed by the average worker's experience and work productivity, quality and accident rate scores were traced over a 5‐year period. Results showed that workers with little work experience preferred to work in shorter cycles composed of a small variety of tasks, whereas workers with more experience preferred longer cycles composed of a larger variety of tasks. In addition, autonomously chosen rotation systems proved to boost productivity and work satisfaction when compared to units that did not implement job rotation. In contrast, only 4 out of 10 rotation types showed improvements in decreased number of accidents. Of the 10 rotation types, ones with daily cycles with a small range of tasks and weekly cycles with a wide range of tasks displayed the most promising results for productivity, work satisfaction, and accident prevention. This study implies that the preferred types of rotation do not necessarily lead to higher productivity, safety, and satisfaction. The results of this study are expected to serve as a basic guideline for job design.

A model for developing job rotation schedules that eliminate sequential high workloads and minimize between-worker variability in cumulative daily workloads: Application to automotive assembly lines

The aim of study is to suggest a job rotation schedule by developing a mathematical model in order to reduce cumulative workload from the successive use of the same body region. Workload assessment using rapid entire body assessment (REBA) was performed for the model in three automotive assembly lines of chassis, trim, and finishing to identify which body part exposed to relatively high workloads at workstations. The workloads were incorporated to the model to develop a job rotation schedule. The proposed schedules prevent the exposure to high workloads successively on the same body region and minimized between-worker variance in cumulative daily workload. Whereas some of workers were successively assigned to high workload workstation under no job rotation and serial job rotation. This model would help to reduce the potential for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) without additional cost for engineering work, although it may need more computational time and relative complex job rotation sequences.

The Eternaut

WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 71 films question how we perceive reality, criticize how we consume pop culture, and give us a glimpse into his dream world. Despite his passing in 2010, fans can still get more of his work in the newly published anthology Dream Fossil. The anthology is a collection of short manga that were written by Kon and published in a series of magazines in the 1980s, including the award-winning “Toriko,” written in 1984. Finally, all of those short stories have been collected and can be read in one place. Reading Dream Fossil is to retrospectively watch Kon grow into the artist who created such dark, gritty, and emotional pieces of work that stand out not just to anime fans but to film lovers in general. In this anthology, you can see this genius developing, particularly in how he thought about obsession. The story “Horseplay” particularly addresses the culture around baseball and how obsession with the sport, its players, and fame can drive one crazy to the point of violence. In other stories, such as “Carve,” Kon’s close relationship with Akira’s creator, Katsuhiro Ōtomo, is apparent as he addresses the concept of human consciousness and how the boundaries of human consciousness can be pushed to the breaking point. The one theme consistent throughout these stories is Kon’s attempt to develop and articulate his stance on the increasingly technology-focused world around him. Despite this feeling, not every short story in the anthology is striking, and some are honestly a little boring. This is a collection of his early work, remember, and while Kon was a genius, not every story he created was a home run. But the characters at the center of each story are what keep you reading. Kon has a way of making small snapshots of life both whimsical and relatable, from the beauty of falling in love to the awkwardness of sexual arousal. These stories span from the past, present , and future, and all try to explore how humans interact with one another in such a violent and turbulent world. Mary Beth McAndrews Washington, DC Héctor Germán Oesterheld. The Eternaut. Illus. Francisco Solano López. Trans. Erica Mena. Fantagraphics Books. Seattle. 2015. 362 pages. There’s a treasure trove of Spanish-language comics south of the border lost to Englishonly readers. Until now, this included one of the most significant and famous: Héctor Germán Oesterheld’s and Francisco Solano López’s El Eternauta. To our great fortune and with Erica Mena’s remarkable English translation, Fantagraphics Books has changed comic book history. For the first time since its serialized publication in Argentina between 1957 and 1959, English-only readers can immerse themselves in the totality of Oesterheld’s narrative world. And at 350-plus pages, this allows for a deep and complete immersion . Created during a time of technophobia (post–A-bomb devastation) and technophilia (the national push to build nuclear power plants, automotive assembly lines, and an ultramodern freeway system), threats of censorship by autocratic one-party rule, far-left resistance, and an Argentine publishing marketplace trying to hold at bay the onslaught of US superhero comics, Oesterheld and Solano López created an epic odyssey that follows the adventures of protagonist Juan 72 WLT MARCH / APRIL 2016 Salvo (The Eternaut) and his cadre of fallible compadres as they use their wits and technical skills to defend earth against an intergalactic alien invasion out to obliterate human life—and to transform those left into robotic slaves. Oesterheld’s precise prose together with Solano López’s detailed black-and-white art create a rich and layered graphic narrative that vitally shows the power of human cooperation and collective resistance to forces of destruction and greed. As with the original, Solano López’s stunning visuals create a resplendent interplay of light and dark shading; they add important variety and rhythm in his careful calibration of different angles and close-up, medium, and distant shots of characters and action. His dexterous hand works to intensify and complicate our emotional engagement. Working closely together, we see how an author and artist can dance delicate lines between prose and art...

Using Marker-less Motion Capture Systems for Walk Path Analysis in Paced Assembly Flow Lines

In recent years, automotive industry is facing a turbulent environment with an increasing demand for mass-customization and shortened product life-cycles. For manual assembly, this trend has led to a rising planning complexity, since growing numbers of product variants are hitting mixed-model assembly lines. In this context, it is crucial for production planning to be aware of the actual state of an assembly line in order to identify inconsistencies between the situation in company-owned learning factories and the shop floor, especially when considering non-value-adding tasks (e.g. walk paths). However, a feedback loop for walk paths linking the assembly line with the planning department is not established in practice. Consequently, discrepancies between planned and real processes remain largely unknown since they only become apparent through production disruptions. In order to provide production planning with an objective tool for walk path assessment, this work proposes a novel tracking approach, being able to reconstruct operators’ motion within an assembly line. Based on a distributed depth camera array, a scalable and marker-less tracking system is presented that can be applied in productive environments. An in-depth evaluation underlines the performance of this novel approach and assesses the overall path accuracy. Finally, the proposed system is set up in an automotive final assembly line during operation. The gathered data is investigated regarding planning inconsistencies during operation.

Sub-assembly detection and line balancing using fuzzy goal programming approach

This study suggests a mathematical modelling approach to sub-assembly detection and assembly line balancing problems. The sub-assembly detection problem involves two issues as follows: 1 determine which components of products are assembled in sub-assembly area; 2 determine which components of the products are assembled directly in the line. In assembly line balancing problem tasks are assigned to the workstations. The main motivation of this study is to determine the best compromised assembly line structure by solving the sub-assembly detection and the line balancing problems jointly. A multi-objective mathematical model is developed to formulate the above mentioned problems in which two conflicting costs of sub-assembly generation and assembly line labour cost are involved. Since the applications in real life are imprecise, fuzzy goal programming is adapted to the developed model to determining the vague goal. Then the model is implemented in a real life automotive manufacturers assembly line balancing.

Presenting a Novel Motion Capture-based Approach for Walk Path Segmentation and Drift Analysis in Manual Assembly

Automotive industry is currently facing the challenge to cope with the market demand for mass-customization whilst remaining competitive. In production planning, this trend towards product-diversification leads to a rising complexity, since growing numbers of variants are hitting mixed-model assembly lines. Due to these changing preconditions, traditional planning models and respective simulations tend to decreasingly reflect reality. Actual manual assembly processes can deviate significantly from their corresponding plans due to simplified assumptions of simulation models, methods and tools. In order to contribute to a better prediction quality of planning models, this paper investigates walk paths in real assembly situations with regard to their deviation from corresponding plans. A novel algorithm set for walk path reconstruction and neural network based classification of work tasks is introduced. Therewith, data gathered by a mobile tracking setup can be automatically segmented and subsequently assigned to the process plans. This novel approach enables an assessment of predetermined assembly times by comparing reference to real walk paths. The method's technical performance is verified in laboratory evaluation scenarios and its applicability is proven in a productive automotive final assembly line during operation.

Robot Workmate: A Trustworthy Coworker for the Continuous Automotive Assembly Line and its Implementation

The automotive industry is facing significant challenges due to shortened product lifecycles, increased product variances, and fluctuating markets. The current assembly systems are unable to handle the increased requirements for mass customisation, so they need to be optimised with new technologies. Human-robot cooperation has evolved as a solution to overcome these difficulties and create flexible and customizable automation processes. This paper delivers an approach for a methodology to implement HRC robotic systems into the continuous assembly line. This optimisation allows for cooperation between robots and the manual labour, which enhances the ergonomics, productivity, and quality level of the process station.

STANDARDIZED WORK IN TPS PRODUCTION LINE

This paper presents a case study implementation of one of the Toyota Production System (TPS) tools, known as Standardized Work (SW), in an automotive assembly line in Malaysia. The main functions of SW are to design, develop, document and visualize a set of a manufacturing process with detail and proper study of it. SW is conducted to raise production consistency and quality of a produced product and the job performed. With the proper SW implementation, good results have been obtained from the increase in efficiency, productivity, quality and process stability of the operator’s performance. Thus, the findings are consistent with TPS philosophies which are waste elimination and continuous improvement in any manufacturing area.