AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS:DESIGN OF MANUAL ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS

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DESIGN OF MANUAL ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS

The manual assembly systems are divided into two main categories, manual single-station assemblies and assembly lines.

The manual single-station assembly method consists of a single workplace in which the assembly work is executed on the product or some major subassembly of the product. This method is generally used on a product that is complex or bulky and depends on the size of the product and required production rate. Custom-engineered products such as machine tools, industrial equipment, and pro- totype models of large, complex consumer products make use of a single manual station to perform the assembly work on the product.

Manual assembly lines consist of multi-workstations in which the assembly work is executed as the product (or subassembly) is passed from station to station along the line (see Figure 3).

At each workstation, one or more human operators perform a portion of the total assembly work on the product by adding one or more components to the existing subassembly. When the product comes off the final station, work has been completed.

Manual assembly lines are used in high-production situations where the sequences to be performed can be divided into small tasks and the tasks assigned to the workstations on the line. One of the key advantages of using assembly lines is the resulting specialization of labor. Because each worker is given a limited set of tasks to perform repeatedly, the worker becomes a specialist in those tasks and is able to perform them more quickly and consistently.

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