Formulation of Operational Research and Optimization in an Automobile Engine Assembly Line

Abstract

Depending upon the priorities of the management, primary focus on reducing either cycle time or
total energy consumption, suitable models could be selected. The proposed models are useful to
reduce the total energy consumption and cycle time in robotic assembly lines. It is observed that the
computation time for the time based model is less compared to energy based model. Manufacturing
industries give importance to the reduction of energy consumption due to the increase in energy cost
and to create an eco-friendly environment. Assembly line is considered to be one of the cost intensive
systems. Robots are recently being used to perform the assembly tasks instead of manual labor. There
is a requirement of efficiently balancing the assembly line by allocating equal amount of work to
workstations and assignment of best fit robot to perform the tasks allocated to those workstations.
Waste reduces the efficiency of the process and also demands require special equipment. The
industries need to focus on optimization of process by shorten the time between the customer order
and the product build due to shipment by addressing sources of waste. Establishment and use of a
process that is most efficient is always be the prime concern but due to some or the other reason they
are not able to do so. Practically it is not feasible to obtain ideal efficiency because there is something
which is lost in every process which is Waste or error. Workstation Stability and Continuous
Improvement Mapping is the techniques used for reducing manufacturing wastes and increase in
efficiency, for such process several parameters are being identified in an industry also evaluations
are done on an every monthly basis and comparisons are followed with the pre-determined standards
to identify the scope of improvement to increase the efficiency and reduce waste.