Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Publication
    Capacity management of modular assembly systems
    ( 2017)
    Gyulai, D.
    ;
    Monostori, L.
    Companies handling large product portfolio often face challenges that stem from market dynamics. Therefore, in production management, efficient planning approaches are required that are able to cope with the variability of the order stream to maintain the desired rate of production. Modular assembly systems offer a flexible approach to react to these changes, however, there is no all-encompassing methodology yet to support long and medium term capacity management of these systems. The paper introduces a novel method for the management of product variety in assembly systems, by applying a new conceptual framework that supports the periodic revision of the capacity allocation and determines the proper system configuration. The framework has a hierarchical structure to support the capacity and production planning of the modular assembly systems both on the long and medium term horizons. On the higher level, a system configuration problem is solved to assign the product families to dedicated, flexible or reconfigurable resources, considering the uncertainty of the demand volumes. The lower level in the hierarchy ensures the cost optimal production planning of the system by optimizing the lot sizes as well as the required number of resources. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is demonstrated through the results of an industrial case study from the automotive sector.
  • Publication
    Design and management of reconfigurable assembly lines in the automotive industry
    ( 2016)
    Colledani, M.
    ;
    Gyulai, D.
    ;
    Monostori, L.
    ;
    Urgo, M.
    ;
    Unglert, J.
    ;
    Houten, F. van
    Automotive suppliers are facing the challenge of continuously adapting their production targets to variable demand requirements due to the frequent introduction of new model variants, materials and assembly technologies. In this context, the profitable management of the product, process and system co-evolution is of paramount importance for the company competitiveness. In this paper, a methodology for the design and reconfiguration management of modular assembly systems is proposed. It addresses the selection of the technological modules, their integration in the assembly cell, and the reconfiguration policies to handle volume and lot size variability. The results are demonstrated in a real automotive case study.