Robust Fixture Layout Design for a Product Family Assembled in a Multistage Reconfigurable Line

Reconfigurable assembly systems enable a family of products to be assembled in a single system by adjusting and reconfiguring fixtures according to each product. The sharing of fixtures among different products impacts their robustness to fixture variation due to trade offs in fixture design (to allow the accommodation of the family in the single system) and to frequent reconfigurations. This paper proposes a methodology to achieve robustness of the fixture layout design through an optimal distribution of the locators in a multistation assembly system for a product family. This objective is accomplished by (1) the use of a multistation assembly process model for the product family, and (2) minimizing the combined sensitivity of the products to fixture variation. The optimization considers the feasibility of the locator layout by taking into account the constraints imposed by the different products and the processes (assembly sequence, data scheme, and reconfigurable tools’ workspace). A case study where three products are assembled in four stations is presented. The sensitivity of the optimal layout was benchmarked against the ones obtained using dedicated assembly lines for each product. This comparison demonstrates that the proposed approach does not significantly sacrifice robustness while allowing the assembly of all products in a single reconfigurable line.