Network-type Cell Layout in Cellular Flexible Assembly Systems

셀형유연조립시스템에서의 네트웍형 셀배치

With the success of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs), flexible assembly systems (FASs) have been developed to automate factories further. As in a cellular FMS, a cellular FAS is considered as the most flexible and feasible assembly system configuration Because of the differences between manufacturing and assembly operation, the logic of cell formation and cell layout between a FMS and a FAS is not the same. Since the time for assembly operation is usually relatively short, the transfer time is thus very crucial for the performance of assembly systems. Therefore in assembly systems it is important to reduce the transfer time by sequencing operations efficiently and arranging machines like the sequences. The network-type layout is not only feasible for the machine arrangement based on operation sequences, but it has also layout flexibility. Therefore it is a reasonable layout configuration for cellular FASs. This paper presents a method for the cell layout based on the network-type layout in a cellular FAS design.