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Application of Bucket Brigades in Assembly Cells for Self Work Balancing  

Koo, Pyung-Hoi (Department of Systems and Management Engineering, Pukyong National University)
Publication Information
IE interfaces / v.22, no.2, 2009 , pp. 144-152 More about this Journal
Abstract
Assembly line has been recognized as an efficient production system in mass production. However, the recent production environment characterized as mass customization urges production managers to transform a long assembly line to a number of short assembly cells. To maximize the utilization of resources in an assembly cell, it is important to have the line balanced. This paper presents a bucket brigade-based assembly cell. Bucket brigade is a way of coordinating workers who progressively perform a set of assembly operations on a flow line. Each worker follows a simple rule: perform assembly operations on a product until the next worker downstream takes it over; then go back to the previous worker upstream to take over a new assembly job. In this way, the line balances itself. The bucket brigade assembly cell is analyzed and compared with traditional assembly lines and general assembly cells. The paper also discusses some prerequisite requirements and limitations when the bucket brigade assembly cells are employed.
Keywords
assembly cell; bucket brigades; ant behavior; line balancing; dynamic assignment;
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Times Cited By KSCI : 2  (Citation Analysis)
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