Framework for designing a flexible cellular assembly system

Modern manufacturing companies have to face competition in a turbulent world market that requires them to improve their operating performances according to increasingly di fferentiated products with shorter life cycles,low volumes and reduced customer delivery times.The aim of the present paper is to develop a conceptual framework for the simultaneous design and control of a flexible,agile recon figurable and robust assembly system in conjunction with the analysis and optimization of product,process,system structure,material-handling devices and plant layout.An e ffective solution for recon figurability and agility in assem- bly to order and batch-type systems is a modular semi-automatic approach based on cellular flexible facilities:modularity,automation and human skills are com- bined to gain the advantages of mass production.Families of parts are produced in flexible cells,i.e.groups of various machines and resources that are physically close together and process one or more families of similar parts.The proposed approach is based on a multistage iterative procedure that integrates di fferent supporting decision techniques and tools such as design for assembly,group technologies and cellular manufacturing.An application to the optimization of a semi-automatic flexible assembly system is illustrated:the system performances of example alternative solutions are presented and compared.