Increasing the output of mixed-model assembly lines for industrialised housebuilding: learnings from a case-based simulation study
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: In industrialised housebuilding, usually customised houses are planned, prefabricated and assembled on the construction site. The building elements for on-site construction are prefabricated on mixed-model assembly lines with several workstations connected in series. Each single building element has different characteristics that influence the need to perform activities as well as their duration. Each component that flows through the production line thus represents a variant that must be given special attention during modelling. Since several changes like the implementation of new technical standards and product innovations or amendments in the production programme influence the balancing of the production line, it is necessary to identify potential bottlenecks and to analyse proposed solutions. This paper presents the modelling of this specific reconfiguring problem for mixed-model assembly lines. It is based on a use case from the production of external walls. A hybrid approach which covers configuration modelling and discrete event simulation was developed to link data describing product characteristics to processes of the simulation model. The model was validated both by using real-time production data and by expert assessments of three production managers. The model adequately represents the variants of the walls, is suitable to identify specific bottlenecks and enables for improving throughput times by testing improvement suggestions. The approach was applied to analyse the following main groups of experiments: (a) base model, (b) worker flexibilisation, (c) technical and process changeovers, (d) shift of work content between stations, (e) a combination of these scenarios and (f) changes in the production programme. The performance of the production line can be increased by most of the experiments configurations, where the best results are achieved with flexibilization measures. Here the average production time per station can be reduced about 13%. On the other hand, the results also show negative effects if some design options are offered to the customers.
Institutions: University of Bayreuth, BOKU University
Language: English
Subfield: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Linz Center of Mechatronics
OpenAlex ID: W4404566378