INTEGRATED

MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

1. Material Handling
2. Fundamentals of Production Lines
3. Assembly Lines
4. Cellular Manufacturing
5. Flexible Manufacturing Systems

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

• Systems that consist of multiple workstations and/or machines

whose operations are integrated by means of a material handling
subsystem
• The three main components of these systems are
1. Workstations and/or machines
2. Material handling equipment
3. Computer control
• In addition, human workers are required

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
Material Handling

• Defined as “the movement, storage, protection and control of

materials throughout the manufacturing and distribution process”
(MHIA)
• Material handling functions in manufacturing:
• Loading and positioning work units at each workstation
• Unloading work units from the station after processing
• Transporting work units between stations

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
Two General Categories of Material Transport
Systems
• Distinguished according to the type of routing between
workstations
1. Fixed routing - all work units are moved through the same sequence of
workstations
• Examples: manual assembly lines, automated transfer lines
2. Variable routing - different work units are moved through different
workstation sequences
• Examples: cellular manufacturing, FMS

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
Production Lines

• Important class of manufacturing system for large quantities of

identical or similar products
• Total work is divided into small tasks, and workers or machines
perform these tasks with great efficiency
• Examples:
• Assembled products (e.g., automobiles and appliances)
• Mass-produced machined parts (e.g., engine blocks and transmission
housings)

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
 Production Line

A series of workstations arranged so the product moves from

one station to the next, and at each location a portion of the
total work is performed

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
Production Line Operation

• Production rate of the line is determined by its slowest station

• Called the bottleneck station
• Transfer of product along the line is usually by a mechanical transfer
device or conveyor system
• Some manual lines manually pass the product between stations
• Production lines are associated with mass production
• Some lines are used for batch production

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
 Methods of Work Transport

• Manual methods
• Passing work units between stations by hand
• Mechanized methods
• Powered mechanical systems to move work
units along the line
• Powered conveyors for manual lines
• Lift-and-carry devices for automated lines
• Advantage of mechanized methods: can be used
to pace the line

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Mechanized Work Transport

1. Continuous transfer systems - continuously moving conveyor

operating at constant speed
• Common on manual assembly lines
2. Synchronous transfer – parts moved simultaneously between
stations with a discontinuous motion
• Common on automated transfer lines
3. Asynchronous transfer systems - each work unit moves
independently, rather than synchronously
• Allows use of queues between stations

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
 Product Variations
• Production lines can be
designed to cope with
variations in product models
• Three types of line can be
distinguished:
1. Single model line - produces
only one model and there are
no model variations
2. Batch model (multimodel) line
– produces more than one
model, but in batches
3. Mixed model line - multiple
models are intermixed rather
than produced in batches
• Soft product variety

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
Mixed Model Lines
• Advantages over batch model line:
• No downtime between models
• Avoids situations that are typical of batch production in which there
are high inventories of some models while other models are stocked
out
• Model mixes can be changed in response to changes in demand

• Problems with mixed model lines:

• Assigning tasks to workstations so that all workers have equal
workloads is more complex
• Scheduling (determining the sequence of models launched) is a
problem not encountered in single-model and batch-model lines
• Logistics (getting the right parts to each workstation for the model
currently at that station) is more difficult

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
Two Basic Types of
Production Lines

1. Manual assembly lines

• Human workers at
workstations performing
assembly operations
• Significant problem is line
balancing
2. Automated production lines
• Workstations are automated
• Significant problem is
system reliability

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover,

Principles of Modern Manufacturing 6e
Manual Assembly Line

• Each Assembly activity

divided into productive
work elements, adds
value to product.
• Group of such elements
are assigned to each
workstation.
• Assembly Lines rely on
Principle of
Interchangeability and
Division of Labor.
• Principle of
Interchangeability –
Individual Components
that make up the final
product must be
interchangeable
• Division of Labor – Work
Simplification,
Standardization and
Each worker performs a task at his/her workstation, Specialization.
and a conveyor moves parts between stations

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
 Why Station Task Times are Different

• Some workers will end up with more work, while other workers will
have less. Why?

• Different work elements require different times

• When grouped into logical tasks and assigned to workers, the service times
will not be equal due to the differences in element times
• Precedence constraints = restrictions on order in which work
elements can be performed

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
The Line Balancing Problem

• Problem is to assign tasks to workers so that all workers have an equal

amount of work
• Total work to be accomplished on the line = the total work content
• Total work content can be divided into minimum rational work elements, each
of which accomplishes some small portion of the total work content
• Minimum rational work elements must be grouped into logical tasks and
assigned to workers at stations

©2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. M P Groover, Principles of

Modern Manufacturing 6e
Example:
Task Activity Task Immediate
time Predecessor
a Insert front axle/wheels 20 -

b Insert fan rod 6 a

c Insert fan rod cover 5 b
d Insert rear axle/wheels 21 -

e Insert hood to wheel 8 -

frame
f Glue windows to top 35 -

g Insert gear assembly 15 c,d

h Insert gear spacers 10 g

i Secure front wheel frame 15 e,h

j Insert engine 5 c
k Attach top 46 f,i,j
l Add decals 16 k
Example:
Task Activity Task Immediate
time Predecessor
a Insert front axle/wheels 20 -

b Insert fan rod 6 a

c Insert fan rod cover 5 b
d Insert rear axle/wheels 21 -

e Insert hood to wheel 8 -

frame
f Glue windows to top 35 -

g Insert gear assembly 15 c,d

h Insert gear spacers 10 g

i Secure front wheel frame 15 e,h

j Insert engine 5 c
k Attach top 46 f,i,j
l Add decals 16 k
Exercise

Write out the complete binary integer programming formulation for the
following line balancing problem. Let the cycle time equal to C=100.
We will not cover
Solve: Exercise #6