A skill- and feature-based approach to planning process monitoring in assembly planning

Abstract Frequent changes in customer needs and large product variety are forcing manufacturing companies to move from mass production customization. Customized can be achieved by introducing reconfigurable systems (RMS). The customized flexibility several characteristics of RMSs provide many opportunities terms process planning. However, those greatly increase the complexity design planning systems. This paper presents a decision support system relying on skill-based approach assembly line considering processes monitoring. proposed aid is modular composed four modules. main input data CAD model new variant for identification monitoring requirements. Besides, current layout with its resource descriptions exists. In first developed module, assembly-by-disassembly used generate different plans. second feature recognition approaches alternatives. third module uses linear program (LP) that aims minimize total cost workstation activation reconfiguration, as well cycle time, maximize quality tasks. A user-based generative applied optimize values three objective functions. fourth final simulation optimized plan allows either validation or initiates iteration due their infeasibility. To further demonstrate how methodology works, some computational experiments provided two use cases.