Present assembly systems are often based on rigid, line-based approaches and are hindered in their reconfiguration capability. Line-less Mobile Assembly Systems (LMAS) are a novel approach for assembly organization. They improve flexibility through mobile resources, permitting spatiotemporal freedom in scheduling and resource assignment. This paper presents a method for a priori assessment of LMAS during the early stages of the assembly system design process. The method applies a modified, extended mean value analysis to a closed queuing network representation of LMAS to estimate performance. The method is validated model analysis and comparison on two use cases indicating plausible model behavior. (c) 2021 CIRP. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
展开▼