Analysis of a Self-Balancing Production Line

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  • 自己バランス機能を備えた生産ラインの解析
  • ジコ バランス キノウ オ ソナエタ セイサン ライン ノ カイセキ

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In the traditional assembly line, usually each worker is assigned to a particular fixed task and the greatest work content determines the production rate. For this line, assigning a worker to balance the line is studied in previous research. However, it is inflexible. In this kind of line, when an unbalance between workers' speeds exists, the slowest worker will delay overall production. As a result, the production rate of the particular line will decrease. For solving this problem, a "Self-Balancing Production Line" was introduced. The utilization of the mentioned method is reported in at least two commercial environments: apparel manufacturing and distribution warehousing. In this type of production line, each worker is assigned task dynamically, and when the last worker completes an item, he/she walks back and takes over the next item of his/her predecessor, who relinquishes it, walks back, takes over the next item of his/her predecessor, and so on until the first worker walks back and starts a new item. Since faster workers are assigned more time in processing an item, and slower workers spend less time, a balance is created. For this line, it is found that production achieves the maximum production rate if the workers are sequenced from slowest to fastest. Additionally, other conditions for three workers were found numerically by simulation. However, this condition is extremely limited, and it is necessary to conduct further research for three or more workers to find the maximum production rate. In this paper, in spite of the traditional sequence of assigning workers from slowest to fastest in the production line, other conditions that can reach the same self-balancing effect are found and analyzed.

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