Assembly system design - : Case study of a mixed model production

Abstract: The report, which is a part of the course "MG202X Examensarbete", has been written for the institution Industrial Production at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) with guidance from Antonio Maffei. The work has been focused on creating an assembly system at a production facility for Schneider Electric in Nyköping. The Authors has divided the report into a literature review containing Lean production and assembly systems, an analysis of the initial state and a solution. The literature review presents three separate parts which creates the framework of our analysis. The first part regards assembly system and describes different types of design alternatives and which losses that can be found in an assembly system. Furthermore the second part contains Lean production where selected parts of the philosophy are described. The last part of the literature review treats the design of the workstation with regards to ergonomics and part presentation. The analysis at Schneider Electric has been conducted during a three month period and has included time studies, observations and interviews. To analyze the initial state a model for estimating assembly times and workload were needed. An in depth understanding of the initial state was the foundation to be able to create an adapted and accepted assembly system. The work resulted in two suggested assembly systems. One system contains only one workstation and was to be used for a simple assembly process. The second system is to be used for more complex products and has a higher capacity as it contains three workstations. As the assembly system contains three separate workstations it means that the assembly process has been divided which were done through a consideration between logical split and balancing of the system. Both systems used a continuous supply system for components.