Performance Evaluation of Conveyor-Less Matrix Assembly System Using Simulation and Mathematical Models

Abstract The increasing demand for electric vehicles and the emergence of autonomous transport technologies within production like autonomous mobile robot or self-driving rolling chassis have raised the possibility of developing conveyor-less matrix assembly system. The conveyor-less matrix assembly system is characterized by high adaptability to demand changes with low-cost investments and asynchronous operations allowing high routing and process flexibilities where the sequence of assembly operations is only limited by the product-specific precedence orders. With high flexibility potentials, however, the system needs to face high complexity issues in modeling and control. The high complexity may reduce the system performance and thus, the performance evaluation is a key component in modeling and control of conveyor-less matrix systems. To study the evaluation methods for the conveyor-less matrix assembly, this paper introduces two models, a mixed-integer linear programming model as exact method and a simulation model as heuristic method, and then illustrates how two models are different but can work collaboratively in a hypothetical example drawn from automotive assembly trim area. Finally, this paper intends to provide insights on the business value calculation of conveyor-less matrix assembly system, for practitioners who are interested in building conveyor-less matrix assembly system in the future.