See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/301701380

The automation of an assembly system: A business process re-engineering

(BPR) perspective

Conference Paper · October 2015

DOI: 10.1109/IESM.2015.7380185

CITATIONS READS

0 1,300

5 authors, including:

Ilaria De sanctis Maurizio Bevilacqua

Università Politecnica delle Marche Università Politecnica delle Marche
16 PUBLICATIONS 100 CITATIONS 136 PUBLICATIONS 2,834 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Filippo Emanuele Ciarapica Giovanni Mazzuto

Università Politecnica delle Marche Università Politecnica delle Marche
112 PUBLICATIONS 1,397 CITATIONS 46 PUBLICATIONS 233 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Improvement of FCM methodology View project

“HERCULES: High Efficiency and compact eneRgy storage solutions for multi-function laser guided vehicles Controlled and monitored Using smart ICT LEan-logistics
solutionS” View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Ilaria De sanctis on 29 April 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 The automation of an assembly system: a business
process re-engineering (BPR) perspective
(presented at the 6th IESM Conference, October 2015, Seville, Spain) © I4e2 2015

Maurizio Bevilacqua, Filippo Emanuele Ciarapica, Ilaria De Sanctis, Giovanni Mazzuto, Claudia Paciarotti
DIISM
Università Politecnica delle Marche
Ancona, Italy
{m.bevilacqua, f.ciarapica, i.desanctis, g.mazzuto, c.paciarotti}@univpm.it

Abstract—The purpose of this paper is to automate a manual the high cost of not automating. On the other hand, process
assembly line following a structured framework, in a consciousness may decrease under high automated
motorcyclist industry. Process re-engineering is implemented in environment [9] and high level of automation means to loss the
order to improve and automate the assembly process of a flexibility of human operators [10]
manufacturing company. The transition from the manual process
to the new semi-automated assembly line is composed of 4 main The automation as competitiveness source also attracted the
steps: the as-is analysis, the Process reengineering and layout attention of national government policy. The role of
design, the training and finally the mass production. The study government in promoting the automation adoption should be
has shown that the line automation yields significant an effective and can lead to tangible benefits. As instance, the
improvements: sizeable increase of the workstations saturation, Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Ministry of
better cohesion with Just in Time principles, reduction of the Economic Affairs in Taiwan has been promoting the program
employed working force, and increase of the quality control “Manufacturing Automation Promotion Policy (MAPP)” for
process rigor.The scope of the study was limited to one of the more than 10 years [11].
firm assembly line. In future, the company plans to perform
similar studies on the other lines.This investigation shows The identification of the proper level of automation for best
significant benefit associated with a structured implementation system performance results from a balanced and holistic
automation in the field of assembly process. The findings will approach to automation [12]. Decision about the level of
mainly be relevant for process and logistics managers involved in automation is not a planned and structured activity and there
the planning of a new assembly line or in the redesign of an are not support decision systems to adopts, on the contrary it is
existing one.This paper provides an original case study of as-is mainly an ad hoc nature activity [13] [14].
analysis, re-design, training and testing of an improved assembly
line. Frequently, it is possible to notice a lack of strategy
formulation and little use of methods to design, introduce and
Keywords—Assembly systems, process re-engineering, layout evaluate automation projects [15] [16]. More, the assembly line
design, Assembly Line Design, automation. design is often complex due to the high number of
variablesinvolved such as line efficiency, cost, reliability and
I. INTRODUCTION space [17] [18].
Assembly process plays a key role in production systems. This context leads us to follow a structured approach to the
The improvement and optimization of the assembly process is assembly re-design shown in this paper. The adopted
vital to manufacturing competitiveness [1]: about 50% of the methodological approach is described in Section 2. In section 3
product cost should be ascribed to the assembly phase [2]. the case study is illustrated in detail with a specific attention to
The increasing degree of automation in industrial facilities each of the four step implemented. Then, in section 4 the
is a modern trends in manufacturing. The current trend to results are reported, taking into account both quantitative and
assembly automation is evident in both the planning of new qualitative aspects. Section 5 presents conclusions
assembly line and the redesign of an existing one [3]. summarizing the information presented.
Automation is defined as the performance of tasks by machines
rather than human operators [4]. Automation results in II. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
reduction of operator workload, errors and labour costs [4]; [6]. This redesign was done using the approach illustrated in
Under low uncertainty environment, manufacturing system Figure 1.The transition from the manual circular process to the
automation has significant positive impact on manufacturing new semi-automated linear assembly line is composed of 4
performance [7]. Reference [8] detected nine reasons for main steps: the as-is analysis, the Process reengineering and
automating: Increase labour productivity, Reduce labour cost, layout design, the training and finally the mass production.
Mitigate the effects of labour shortages, Reduce or eliminate
The project schedule is reported in a Gantt chart (Figure 2).
routine manual or clerical tasks, Improve worker safety,
Improve product quality, Reduce manufacturing lead time,
Accomplish processes that cannot be done manually, Avoid
Fig. 1. Re-design phases. Fig. 3. Workstation datasheet.

PROCESS  
REENGINEERING   OPERATORS   MASS  
AS-­‐IS  ANALYSIS   AND  LAYOUT   TRAINING   PRODUCTION  
DESIGN  

The first step of the analysis is the as- is analysis, where the
current state of the business process in the organization has
been analysed. Three instruments were used to collect
information pertaining to the as-is assembly process: the
collection of technical data from available document analysis,
the on field observation and the exchanges of view with the
operators, and the operations simulation on a test bench. The The analysis is composed of the 3 main following steps:
period duration of this first step is 20 days.
1. Technical data collection (e.g. workstation datasheet
The second step, as reported in Figure 1, is the Process and and drawings);
layout redesign, where the existing assembly processes have
been mapped and then reorganized in order to optimize the 2. On field observation and data collection;
operational efficiency, to reduce Wastes (Muda), Unevenness 3. Operations simulation on a test bench.
or irregularity (Mura) and Overburden of people and machines
(Muri). The technical data collection of the assembly process is
obtained by the examination of the workstation datasheets
Following the Process and layout redesign, the third step of associated at each workstation. These documents contain a
the methodology is the operator training. In order to consider synthetic description of the operation to be performed in the
the three learning ways, as suggested in [19], direct experience, workstation, the components required and the illustrations of
verbal transmission of information and the reorganizing of the operations. A exemplifying version of the workstation
what employees already know into a new configuration have datasheet is provided in Figure 3. But, the first step of the
been included in the operator training. Even if the training analysis is not enough by itself to perform an deep analysis of
phase duration is 5 days, great importance is given to the the existing situation, and it should lead to a wrong and
operators’ involvement and education in all the re-engineering inaccurate assessment.
phases. Indeed human resources are the key factors for the
organizational success. Reference [20] accounted even the Therefore the direct observation became a basic step for an
human resource as the organization unique competitive accurate analysis. The on field analysis is composed by both
advantage and its main capital. the working observation and the involvement of workers. The
cooperative relationship with the operators is primary; the
The last step of the methodology is the Mass production worker know how is the basis of the continuous improvement
where the new production process is observed and analysed in and for this reason the opinion on current critical situation and
order to quantitatively evaluate the obtained improvement. The possible improvement is a crucial part of the initial analysis.
duration of this phase is 20 days, as reported in the Gant chart
on figure 2. Finally, as a third step, in order to have the whole
description of the as-is state, on a test bench tests have been
III. CASE STUDY developed. Indeed, features that should be neglected in the
The research presented in this paper is based on a case previousstagesshould appear by directly simulating the
study at an Italian manufacturing company producing assembly operation on a test bench.
motorcycle. Due to the non-disclosure agreement between the
organization and the authors, some information concerning to
the organization, included the whole layout map, cannot be Fig. 4. First layout of linear line.
exposed in detail. However, the data collected is reported
accurately and are in no way changed.
A. The as-is analysis
The Project started with an analysis of the initial situation
in order to create a good starting point for our redesign.
This section addresses the existing assembly procedures for
seat rail production and the initial layout.
Fig. 2. Gantt chart.
 A so structured analysis of the existing assembly line Fig. 6. MURA analysis.
provided a complete overview of the real processes currently
performed.
The initial seat rail assembly layout is shown in Figure 4.
The seat rail assembly was performed on a manual carousel
equipped with four jig. The jigs are able to rotate around the
main axis and are equipped with a lock plate. Furthermore, in
order to allow and facilitate the operations, the jigs can also
rotate around its own axis. All the locking operations and
rotations are managed manually. The assembly line is a multi-
model one: it produces two seat rail models: model VR1 and
VR2 model. The seat rail assembly is split between the five
working stations WS1, WS2, WS3, WS4 and WS5; where
WS1 and WS2 are used exclusively for the assembly of VR2,
while the other workstation are used for both the versions. 3 In order to obtain the previous objectives the following
features were considered: space optimization; ergonomics and
and 5 workers are required for the VR1 and VR2 models
assembly respectively. Each working station has its dedicated operator safety; operator movements minimization and line
supply simplification and improvement.
supply area and two additional trays located in the centre of the
carousel holding down the small components (e.g. rubber Two expert technicianscollected data, through the repetition
washer, screws, nuts). of each task more than once for each model, for both assembly
and controlling operations. The aim of this phase is reducing
B. Process reengineering and layout design
Muda and Mura and balancing workloads on the assembly line.
Starting from this preliminary analysis performed in order
to well understand the starting point and the tasks necessary to Infigure 6 results of the time data collection for each
complete the assembly process, the transition from the circular activity belonging to a work station have been reported. In
to the linear assembly process can be planned in detail. particular the mean time and the standard deviation of the data
collected have beenrepresented. The main causes of an high
At first the jig is redesigned basing on the list of requisites standard deviation could be founded in the lack of operative
emerged from the analysis of the in use jig, and the operators standards, non-compliance of the operative standards, lack of
evaluation and suggestions. The new jig shows an increase in appropriate tools, lack of ergonomics in the workplace.
the movement degree and an improvement for the lock plates.
So, taking in account the precedence relationships, the tasks
Furthermore, the definition of the new plant layout, was are grouped in order to increase the working station saturation
made with the following objectives: level and reduce wastes. Six operations were assigned to
− Muda (Waste): Eliminatingnon-value-adding another under saturated assembly line equipped with the
activities; necessary facilities so as reducing unevenness and irregularities
in the production process. Due to the stability of the product
− Mura (Unevenness or irregularity): Eliminating market, the assembly line balancing phase is carried out
unevenness or irregularities in the production process; considering a fixed demand with low uncertainty level.
− Muri (Overburden): Eliminating overburden assembly
process.
−
Fig. 7. MURI Results with the first layout in WS4.
Fig. 5. Original layout: A central carosel with 4 workstations (WS1-WS2-
WS3-WS4). Around the 4 workstations there are the working station stores
and the fifth (WS5).
Fig. 8. Detail of operator working position. But, the proposed solution shows limits connected with the
operator safety. In fact, there are a lot of right operations and
consequently the operator mainly works counter the assembly
line movement direction. In addition, another important
element for the plan layout design, is the working side along
the line which impact on the number of jig rotation and on the
loss time. So comfortable and the ergonomic manner for the
worker in the workstation and no- value adding activities could
be improved. Indeed developing an ergonomic working
conditions among employers reduce accidents, increase safety
and comfort and optimize business performance [21].
In Figure 8, the white arrow shows the operator position,
while the black one shows the line direction. It is clear that the
operator works walking backwards and this represents an
unsafe working condition.
But a problem to face, passing from a circular to a linear
system, is to define the working side for each task. In fact, Hence, the previous layout was improved as illustrated in
during the production process, the operator cannot pass from Figure 9. WS3N position shifted from the left to the right
one side of the line to the other one. So the working side need side.Reanalysing the activities through a Muri analysis, as
to be defined for each task. These physical constraintscaused, illustrated before, with the actual configuration the operator’s
during the on field simulation, some operative difficulties: the safety problems have been removed.After the feasibility
fall of some components and safety problems due to lack of assessment and the balancing phase, the new datasheets were
ergonomic conditions. composed.
The ergonomic condition for each workstation has been The designed semiautomatic assembly line is moved by a
evaluated through a MURI sheet (Appendix 1). In particular three-phase asynchronous engine and it is equipped with 6
each activity has been split in elementary operations and after, stopping devices. It is 9 meters in length and 0.9 meters in
each operation has been evaluated in terms of dangers of width and 12 jigs are distributed along 4 working station.
movements. The flexion of the bust, the rotation of the bust, the The feeding system was planned in order to remove, or at
arms height, the knees flexion, the difficulty of pick up least reduce, the non-value adding activities, like moving to
materials, the length of materials are some of the aspects take the components or taking them to the workstations.
considered for each elementary operation for the analysis of
movements. As it is, we can highlight some qualitative improvement
obtained by the semi-automated assembly line. In addition to
After, a bar chart, as the one reported in figure 7, represents the assembly line work stations, Figure 10 shows the designed
the total score of criticality for each activities carried out by the line feeding system. It is a relevant aspect to take into account
workstation considered. The Muri results allow to understand depending on its effect on the efficiency of the manufacturing
the most critical activities for each workstation. systems [22]. In the new linear layout, some boxes containing
Therefore, designers planned a working station outside the small components were located near the jigs. Further,
line: operations 487, 489 and 488 are completed in an isolated improvements of ergonomic were obtained by installing simple
working station.The first solution designed is the one reported support devices for the electric screwdrivers. The two lateral
in Figure 5.Through this solution Overburden (Muri) and no- replenishment aisles simplify and increase the efficiency of the
value-adding activities (Muda) have been reduced compared to supply operations: the responsible for the material supply
the initial situation. invade no longer the area occupied by the assemblers.
C. The training phase and the mass production
Fig. 9. Final layout. The re-engineering of the assembly process lead to new
working procedure. The change necessitated developing an
educational path for the operators performing assembly tasks
and for technicalemployerssubstituting operators by necessity.
An analysis of the educational requirements, production
requirements, available time and operators’ role was performed
in order to plan in detail the educational path and to prepare the
educational material. The training, performed after this
preliminary stage, was divided on the following three steps:
• The presentation of training videos and the new
workstation datasheets is the first step of the training
process and it gives to operators the necessary theatrical
information.
 • After the descriptive step, an direct confrontation TABLE I. WORKSATION SATURATION LEVEL
between the new process designers and the operators, Workstation WS1 WS2 WS3 WS4 WS5
enables the operators to clarify potential doubts and to VA1 VA2
suggest improvements. Saturation [%] 88 72.7 67.2 121.6
69.3 61.7
• Then the training path includes the on field experience
that is divided into two further steps: at first the task are TABLE II. TASK TIME (WS1N)
performed with the assembly line in stationary
condition and then, when the operators gain confidence Workstation WS1N
with the tasks, the process is simulated on the running Operation ID Op. time VR1 [s] Op. time VR2 [s]
line. So the operators are enabled to simulate the whole 824 ⁄ 13
process and to learn all the skills and knowledge 862 ⁄ 20
required for the process performing. 612 ⁄ 43
Due to the training, the operators are ready to start the 863 ⁄ 50
production and to confidently operate on the new assembly TOT ⁄ 126
line. After this phase, the mass production phase started as
planned and the new production process is observed and TABLE III. TASK TIME (WS2N)
analysed. The operations time were collected and analysed in
order to quantitatively evaluate the obtained improvement. The Workstation WS2N
results are summarized and shown in the following paragraph. Operation ID Op. time VR1 [s] Op. time VR2 [s]

IV. RESULTS 824 23 23

646 6 6
Two parameters have been evaluated in order to provide a
802 31 31
complete comparison between the initial system and the new
one: 680 3 3
825 9 9
• the working station saturation level;
826 14 14
• the employed working force. 838 57 57
The line tack time is defined by the tack time of the whole 847 2 2
production system. It is 170s.The saturation level of each 864 ⁄ 12
workstation is calculated as the ratio between the sum of the 823 13 ⁄
task time in the workstation and the line tack time.The
TOT 158 157
workstation saturations for the circular assembly line are
summarized in Table 1. The oversaturation in WS5 is faced
TABLE IV. TASK TIME (WS3N)
having recourse to a semi-finished product stock that doesn’t
fit with the Just in time policies adopted by the company. Workstation WS3N
Moving from the circular to the semi-automated linear line, Operation ID Op. time VR1 [s] Op. time VR2 [s]
five operations are allocated to another line not saturated and
830 50 50
equipped with the required tools. Tables from 2 to 5 show the
task time expressed in seconds for each operation performed 845 10 10
and the sum of the task times in each workstation, for both 831 37 37
VR1 and VR3, when available. 855 17 17
It is possible to calculate the saturation level of the four 848 23 23
workstations (Tab. VI). 833 20 20
The new line leads to a clear and sizeable increase in the TOT 157 157
workstations saturation. The comparison between the mean line
saturation is not meaningful because of the presence, in WS5, TABLE V. TASK TIME (WS4N)
of a oversaturation condition. The oversaturation is removed in Workstation WS4N
the new assembly line and consequently the Just in Time can
Operation ID Op. time VR1 [s] Op. time VR2 [s]
pursued.
609 ⁄ 69
As concern the employed working force, the circular line
601 ⁄ 52
required five operators for the VR1 assembly and three
operators for the VR2 assembly. In the linear assembly line the 600 ⁄ 43
required working force decrease, in fact, respectively, four and TOT ⁄ 164
two operators are necessary.
 TABLE VI. WORKSATION SATURATION LEVEL OF THE NEW LINE [4] R. Parasuraman, and V. Riley, “Humans and automation: use, misuse,
disuse, abuse.”, Human Factors, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 230-253, 1997.
Workstation WS1N WS2N WS3N WS4N
[5] S.W.A. Dekker, “On the other side of promise: what should we
VR1 VR2 automate today?”, In: Harris, D. (Ed.), Human Factors for Civil Flight
Saturation [%] 73.8 92.4 96.1 Deck Design. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, Hampshire, pp.183-198,
92.6 92.3 2004.
[6] E. Hollnagel, “Human-oriented automation strategies.”, In:
Proceedings of the World Congress on Safety of Modern Technical
Further, another interesting improvement is obtained Systems. TUV-Verlag, Cologne, Cologne, pp. 443-452, 2001.
passing from the manual to the semi-automated line in term of [7] K. Liaoand Q. Tu, "Leveraging automation and integration to improve
quality control. In Workstation 5 the same operator was manufacturing performance under uncertainty: An empirical study",
responsible for both a control and re-control activities over a Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 19 No. 1,
pp.38- 51, 2008.
same component. Such an task assignment is against one of the
[8] M.P. Groover, “Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-
quality generation principle that the operator performing a
Integrated Manufacturing, 2nd ed.”, Prentice Hall, Inc., Pearson
control action on an item, cannot be responsible of a further Education, 2001.
control on the same item. The new line balancing eliminated [9] D.B. KaberandM.R. Endsley, “The effects of level of automation and
this incongruence, in fact the two control activities are adaptive automation on human performance, situation awareness and
performed by two different operators in two different workload in a dynamic control task.” Theoretical Issues in
workstation, WS1N and WS4N. Ergonomics Science, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 113-153, 2004.
[10] C.D. Wickens, “Engineering Psychology and Human Performance,
V. CONCLUSION second ed.”, HarperCollins, New York, 1992.
[11] T.H. Chang, C.H. Chiou, H.P. Fu, andP. Chao, "The effect of the
The paper presented the automation process of an assembly government's manufacturing automation promotion policy in Taiwan",
line in the motorcycle industry field. The re-engineering Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 17 No. 1,
process is based on a structured framework. The change from pp. 73-88, 2006.
the manual process to the new semi-automated assembly line is [12] T. Martin, J. Kivinen,J.E. Rijnsdorp, M.G. Rodd and W.B. Rouse,
composed of 4 main steps: the as-is analysis, the Process “Appropriate automation-integrating technical, human, organizational,
reengineering and layout design, the training and finally the economic and cultural factors.”, Automatica, Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 901-
917, 1991.
mass production. The chosen automation level depends on the
complexity of the tasks involved in the process. The study [13] M. Winroth, K. Safsten, and J. Stahre, “Automation strategies:
existing theory or ad hoc decisions?”, International Journal of
showed that the line automation yielded significant Manufacturing Technology and Management, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 98-
improvements, from both a qualitative and a quantitative 114, 2007.
perspective. At first the change leads to an improvement of the [14] V. Granell, “Levels of automation in manufacturing systems: aligning
quality control process rigor and a higher adherence to with strategic and tactical decisions by means of operational
Just in Time principles. Then, the on field measures performed measurement.”, Research Series from Chalmers University of
before and after the innovation developed, showed further Technology, Report No. 18, Goteborg, Sweden, 2007.
improvements. As concern the employed working force, there [15] U. Sandberg, “Reasons for the Success or Failure of an Automation
Project: An Investigation of Small and Medium-­‐sized Swedish
was a decrease from 5 to 4 operators for the VR1 and from 3 to Manufacturing Companies.”, Integrated Manufacturing Systems, Vol.
2 operators for the VR2. More, the new line implementation 3 No. 1, pp. 21-26, 1992.
leads to a sizeable increase in the workstations saturation. Even [16] Bevilacqua, M., Ciarapica, F.E., Paciarotti, C., “A BPR approach to
if the study was limited to one of the firm assembly line, it hydrogeological risk management”, Natural Hazards, 71 (3), pp. 1995-
represents a good practice interesting for process and logistics 2012, 2014.
managers involved in the planning of a new assembly line or in [17] B. Rekiek, and A. Delchambre, "Assembly Line Design: The
the redesign of an existing one. Balancing of Mixed-Model Hybrid Assembly Lines with Genetic
Algorithms", Assembly Automation, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 252.
[18] M. Bevilacqua, F. E. Ciarapica, I. De Sanctis, G. Mazzuto, C.
Paciarotti, “A Changeover Time Reduction through an integration of
REFERENCES lean practices: A case study from pharmaceutical sector”, Assembly
Automation, Vol. 35,No. 1 , pp. 22-34, 2015.
[1] J., Ritchie, R. Dewar, and J. Simmons, “The generation and practical [19] N. Dixon,“The Organizational Learning Cycle: How We Can Learn
use of plans for manual assembly using immersive virtual reality”, Collectively”, McGraw-Hill Company, London, 1994.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineer, Vol. 213 No.
5, pp. 461-74, 1999. [20] N. Mirsepasi, “Human resources management and relationships: a
strategic perspective.”, Tehran: Shervin, 1997.
[2] J. Fan, and J. Dong, “Intelligent virtual assembly planning with
integrated assembly model”, IEEE International Conference on [21] S.,Trzcielinski,W.,Karwowski, “Advances in Ergonomics in
Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pp. 4803-4808, 2003. Manufacturing”, CRC Press; 1 edition (July 10, 2012).
[3] R. Bloss, “Assembly and Automation Expo highlights innovations in [22] H.S. Kilic, and M.B. Durmusoglu, “Advances in assembly line parts
automated assembly", Assembly Automation, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 220- feeding policies: a literature review.”, Assembly Automation, Vol. 35
223, 2011. No. 1, pp. 57–68, 2015.
Appendix 1 MURI sheet.

View publication stats