A Framework Supporting The Design Of Walking Worker Assembly Line Towards Improving Productivity And Ergonomics Performance

In recent years, many flexible assembly systems have been adopted as effective and productive solutions to respond the changes and uncertainties in a competitive manufacturing environment. Successful designs of these systems must be capable of satisfying the strategic objectives of a management in manufacturing company. An example of such systems is so-called walking worker assembly line WWAL, in which each cross-trained worker travels along the line to carry out all required tasks. Design approaches for this system have not been investigated in depth both of significant role in manual assembly process design; productivity and ergonomics. Because of that, these approaches have had a limited success to real applications. This paper presents an innovative and integrated framework which offers the possibility to support the improvement of productivity and ergonomics requirements in WWAL design. To clearly demonstrate implementing the developed framework, a systematic approach established. The approach is based on the simultaneous application of mathematical and metaheuristic techniques. The developed framework has been applied to the optimisation of a manual assembly system design from the industry.