What is an Assembly Line?
An assembly line changed the concept of how things were made. Instead of one person or small group building a product from start to finish, this concept was different that each “person” stayed at their own “work station” and did the same task on every item made. This work station is where each worker accesses a “parts bin” or a “supply line” that constantly feeds him the part as the next product comes to his station on a “conveyor belt”, The advantages include a person becoming an expert at the task that he does, but as the job repeats itself over and over day in and day out, tedium and boredom set in and quality can suffer. The beginning of the line is where the “receiving” of the parts occur and there is also the “final assembly point” where it is completed, inspected and sent off its merry way. I am not sure what the requirements that ask for the specific parts of the assembly line but the concept is there and I tried to put what are the different points in quotes. One of the first
• Bench assembly versus the assembly line • Why assembly lines are controversial in 2005 • Comparing bench assembly with line assembly • Exceptions: where the bench still wins • Assembly lines, assembly cells, and line segments • Assembly and subassembly • All assembly work done in one single line • Final assembly line with subassembly feeder lines • Modular assembly • Pros and cons of subassembly/feeder lines • Collecting assembly time data • Why this needs attention • Data collection methods • Current status of time and motion studies in manufacturing • Predetermined time standards in the automobile industry • MTM and MOST • Toyotas TVAL • Time studies with video recordings • Line balancing • Assembly line balancing • Rebalancing a dedicated line • Multiproduct lines with batch versus leveled sequencing • Balancing assembly time among products on a mixed-flow line • Deliberate imbalances Homework: Case study of improving an assembly line with a 5-sec takt time Day 2 PART III Detailed
An assembly is the arrangement of workers, machines, and equipment, which allows work to pass from operation to operation in the correct order until the product is assembled. It is designed by determining the sequences of operations for manufacture for each product component as well as for the final product. The movement of material is made simple and short for each part to avoid backtracking. An “automotive” assembly line has a bare chassis and components that are attached in a successive pattern while the materials are pulled along a conveyor system. Each worker is limited to a workstation where he or she performs a single and repetitive task. The proper use of scheduling allows for many subassemblies to work together. It is a design method, which permitted workers to produce significantly more output with much less physical effort.
the assembly line though prototypes of the assmebly line can be traced to antiquity, the true ancestor of this industrial technique was the 19th-sentury meat packing industry in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in Chicago, where overhead trolleyswere employed to conbvey carcasses from worker to worker. When these trolleys were connected with chains and pwer was used to assembly line ( or in effect a “diassembly” line in the case of meat cutters). Stationary workers concentrated on one task, performing it at a pace dicatated by the machine, minimizing unnecessary movement, and dramatically increasing productivity.
