Generic Simulation of an Automated Assembly

Abstract

System design generally involves making long-term decisions such as facility layout and system capacity/configuration. As such, models are typically created and used for a single design exercise, and model run time is not a significant factor during the simulation process. The simulation process is based on the use of Simio standard simulation program. This chapter comprises of a generic workstation diagram that shows a setup of an ideal assembly line. This assembly diagram is the basis from which a flowchart/ algorithm is derived from. The assembly line consists of workstations (one to some given number N). N in case is six. Each workstation is fed by buffer storage areas which are continuously replenished according to the supply conditions of the program. A transporter transports the assembly in between stations. This transporter can either be a conveyor as is with Arena, or a vehicle, as is the case in the Simio program. The Generic Flowchart is based on the Generic Assembly Diagram. The given steps from the identification of the component to has the component has been assembled? occur in one assembler and are for one component. These activities (flowchart) are repeated for each component up to the required number of components that make-up the product, i.e. the loops are repeated for each component in the assembly process. The purpose of this paper is to establish a generic simulation process, which will be based on the generic algorithm and generic assumptions to be used to simulate an automated assembly process. In this generic program, the following parameters can be varied: number of workstations, number of components, and order of assembly, cycle time, time to assembly, component and workstation availability and buffer capacity.