4.7 Article

How to carry out assembly line-cell conversion? A discussion based on factor analysis of system performance improvements

Journal

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION RESEARCH
Volume 50, Issue 18, Pages 5259-5280

Publisher

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2012.693642

Keywords

seru; factor analysis; line-cell conversion; assembly cell formation; assembly cell loading; multi-objective optimisation

Funding

  1. Post Doctoral Foundation of Akita Prefectural University
  2. National Natural Science Foundation of China [71021061, 70971019]
  3. Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [N110404021]
  4. China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2011M500827, 2012M510828]
  5. Startup Foundation for Doctors of Liaoning Province [20101039]
  6. project of Sanqin Scholars of Shaanxi Province

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The line-cell (or line-seru) conversion is an innovation of assembly systems that has received less attention. Its essence is dismantling an assembly conveyor line and adopting a mini-assembly unit, called seru (or cell). In this paper, we discuss how to do such line-cell conversions, especially focusing on assembly cell formation (ACF) and assembly cell loading (ACL). We perform 64 arrays of full factorial experiment analysis that incorporate three factors: work stations, product types, and product lot sizes. We construct a two-objective line-cell conversion model that minimises the total throughput time (TTPT) and the total labour hours (TLH). Three non-dominated solutions obtained from the two-objective model are used to evaluate the performance of the line-cell conversion. By investigating the experimental results of the ACF and the ACL, we summarise several managerial insights that could be used to help successful line-cell conversions.

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