Future Assembly Layout Design for assembly of large robots : A state-of-the-art literature review and a Fuzzy AHP analysis for ABB values

Abstract: Global competition is growing for companies everywhere and the demand for new and improved products are rising for each day that passes. The globalization brings new opportunities as well as new challenges since companies need to stay up to date and implement new technologies to stay competitive. Not only do customers want up to date products, they also want high quality, low price and individualized products, customized for their needs. This puts high demand on manufacturing companies to adapt their businesses, increase product diversity and to being able to introduce new variations and new products quickly.  Since the drastic evolution of technology has increased the competitiveness of industrial companies, and the mass customization demands have increased, the necessity to investigate potential system alternatives towards improving production processes, with the help from the new technology, is required. One way of doing this is to revaluate one's assembly layouts since the layout design decision is highly connected to the product portfolio and the production volumes. The specific objective of this thesis is to broaden the case company’s, ABB, knowledge on ways their assembly of large robots can be improved with the focus on potential future assembly solutions. The overall aim of this thesis work is to identify state-of-the-art possible layout design alternatives, evaluate their performances and finding a method of choosing the final layout approach. This is answered by research questions connected to plant layout selection methodology, plant layout options and finally recommendations for the case company. The methodology chosen for deciding the recommended layout is the fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process which is a multi-criteria decision-making tool suitable for decision problems with a hierarchical structure, having main attributes and sub attributes connected to each main attribute. Twenty-four attributes were created and ten layouts based on company observations and a literature study. The layout with the highest score was a layout based on a modernized version of the common fixed position layout. The overall recommendation for the case company was to focus on having a layout in the future with focus on a high technology level as well as high flexibility, for also receiving high performance.