Analysis of matrix assembly systems

At all levels of organizations, adaptable supply chains, reconfigurable products, manufacturing processes and systems, changeability is increasingly becoming important in many industrial. sectors. For instance, a future production system should be designed in a way that the system can quickly and economically react to unpredictable conditions such as varying production volumes and product variants with small lot size, high quality and low costs. This paper reports a study on a flexible and reconfigurable assembly system in which each worker travels with an assembled part down the line to carry out assigned tasks by visiting each workstation sequentially through a random matrix route; each workstation may be composed of more than one identical machine. The work is aimed at the modeling and analysis of such a dynamic system by developing a simple computerized algorithm that has been incorporated into a hierarchical decision maker. This tool is able to generate alternative performance results based on different line configurations specified by users using minimal input data. These options can be further evaluated with simulation providing feedback in terms of system performance so that a suitable configuration can be determined by line designers.