Methodology for planning assembly systems with scalable degree of automation

生产工厂面临着越来越不确定的环境。较短的产品生命周期导致更多的产品爬坡和不确定的数量预期。客户对生产时间和质量要求的要求不断提高。装配规划的经典方法旨在规划静态需求的装配系统的能力和自动化程度。在目前的方法中，适应这些挥发性只能通过重新配置组装系统来实现。为此，装配系统的自动化程度和生产率逐渐提高。轻微的短期波动通过员工部署和轮班模式的调整来吸收。当装配需求在装配系统的生命周期中发生变化时，这些方法就达到了它们的极限。在这种多变的环境中，严格的自动化程度从来都不是最佳的。如果自动化程度过高，在利用不足的情况下会导致单位成本增加。如果自动化程度太低，这可能意味着无法满足增加的需求。因此，该项目采用可扩展自动化程度的方法。具有可扩展的自动化程度的装配系统允许根据波动性影响增加和减少自动化。需要能够实现经济高效和动态可扩展性的解决方案。随着真正的模块化系统和灵活的自动化解决方案的引入，如轻型机器人，人机协作和模块化执行器，为装配系统的可扩展自动化技术实施创造了不断增长的解决方案空间。然而，与传统的自动化技术相比，提供可扩展的系统需要增加投资。这导致了可扩展性要求与装配系统中尽可能低的投资之间的紧张关系。因此，必须回答这样一个问题，即对于特定情况，哪种程度的可扩展自动化是最佳的。除了关注自动化程度的扩展之外，还考虑了其他技术和组织扩展机制，以支持和补充可扩展的自动化。因此，该项目旨在开发一种通用的方法，用于规划基于各种系列生产变体的可扩展装配系统。该方法应解决极端和高频率变化的挑战，直到轮班级别的变化。该项目的首要目标是研究装配系统的可扩展自动化的最佳程度。为了实现这一目标，一个通用的方法规划可扩展的装配系统将被开发。

Production plants are confronted with an increasingly uncertain environment. Shorter product life cycles lead to more product ramp-ups and uncertain quantity expectations. Customer requirements with regard to throughput times and quality requirements are continuously increasing. Classical approaches to assembly planning are aimed at planning the capacity and degree of automation of an assembly system for static requirements. In current approaches, adaptation to these volatilities can only be achieved by reconfiguring the assembly system. To this end, the degree of automation and the productivity of an assembly system are gradually increased. Minor short-term fluctuations are absorbed by employee deployment and adjustments to the shift model. These approaches reach their limits when assembly requirements change during the life cycle of an assembly system. A rigid degree of automation is never optimal in this volatile environment. An excessively high degree of automation leads to increased unit costs in the event of underutilization. If the degree of automation is too low, this can mean that the increased demand cannot be met. The project therefore pursues the approach of a scalable degree of automation. An assembly system with a scalable degree of automation allows both an increase and a reduction of automation according to volatile influences. Solutions are needed that enable cost-effective and dynamic scalability. With the introduction of truly modular systems and flexible automation solutions such as lightweight robots, human-robot collaboration and modular actuators, a constantly growing solution space is being created for the technical implementation of scalable automation of assembly systems. The provision of scalable systems, however, requires an increased investment compared to classical automation technology. This results in a tension between the requirements of scalability and the lowest possible investment in assembly systems. The question must therefore be answered as to which degree of scalable automation is optimal for a specific case. In addition to the focus on scaling the degree of automation, other technical and organizational scaling mechanisms are also considered that support and supplement scalable automation. Therefore, the project aims at the development of a generalized approach for planning scalable assembly systems that is based on a wide variety of serial production variants. The methodology should address the challenges of extreme and high-frequency changes, up to changes on shift level. The overriding goal of the project is to investigate the optimal degree of scalable automation of assembly systems. In order to achieve this goal, a generalized methodology for planning scalable assembly systems will be developed.