FLEXFACTORY: AN ASSEMBLY PROCESS BASED CONCEPT FOR CONFIGURATION OF FLEXIBLY AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS

摘要

The increasing market pressure on product development and production requires highly flexible and reactive assembly systems. This requires assembly systems that (1) can be tailored to different production situations at different manufacturers and (2) can adapt to the changes in this production situation during the system's life. This paper presents a method that enables the development of assembly systems with the desired characteristics. The method comprises two parts: (I) development of a set of assembly system modules and (II) system configuration for a specific production situation. Both parts are highly process based. The first part specifies module windows: process capabilities of modules. The second part specifies the required process windows for a manufacturer's production situation. The configuration of an assembly system is based on the comparison of the required process windows and the module windows. Operation integration into modules is important for realising economically justifiable systems. Three strategies for operation integration are described in this paper. This method presents a promising solution for development of assembly systems that deal with the increasing market pressure on production systems.