Performance assessment of assembly systems

Sammanfattning: The work detailed in this dissertation relates to earlyconceptual decisions in the development of assembly systems forlarge, high-volume products, such as cars, trucks and homeappliances. Historically, the development of such systems hasexperienced a lack of established working procedures andstandardised set of analysis tools, due to the long timeperiods between re-engineering and the immaturity of theresearch area. The objective of this research was to, bytheoretical and empirical studies, develop a comprehensive,systematic and knowledge-preserving method for early assessingperformance of these large assembly systems.The presentation is founded on a review of earlier researchefforts. The research question and objective were detailed bystarting in the assembly system context; the strategy andvalue-adding processes, passing the assembly system in itself;the products, structure and life cycle, and finally focusing onthe nature and methods in design of assembly systems.Following this review, a method for Performance Assessmentof Assembly Systems (PAAS) was formed by tying earlier researchefforts to empirical studies of assembly system developmentprojects in the Swedish car, home appliance and truck industry.The PAAS method incorporates a framework for specifyingrequirements on a large assembly system; a spreadsheet approachfor calculating system data, physical properties and basiceconomic data; and a working procedure for successive modellingand analysis of the system. The PAAS method is exemplified by adeveloped software prototype.A user benefits of the PAAS-method when alternativesolutions exists to reach specified objectives, either due to anew situation, or in order to enhance today?s solution.The method adds value to its users by helping them understandand communicate the different competitive postures a companywill adopt, by choosing one of the great number of conceptualoptions available. The method does this by quantitativeanalysis of the performance, not only cost. Furthermore, thisunderstanding of competitive position early in thedecision-making supports the formation of a manufacturingstrategy.Keywords: