Hybrid, flow-oriented assembly organization

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Peter Nyhuis
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 471726131

The line layout has been used successfully as an assembly organization form, especially since the development of the scientific management at the beginning of the 20th century. Its main purpose is to efficiently operate mass production with high quantities. However, the market for produced goods has developed into a buyer's market and supply chains have been reorganized in the face of tough international competition. In particular, the increasing range of variants with low profit margins poses considerable difficulties for today's assembly systems of manufacturing companies. Line assembly systems, which could previously be operated economically for standard products, must now be able to cope with varying work contents of the diverse product variants, which may differ greatly.Numerous efforts have been made to optimize the efficiency and flexibility of assembly lines in the face of increasing variant diversity. However, the resulting complexity costs and time wastage in production lines continue to challenge companies in the operation and planning of their assembly. Therefore, approaches have to be developed that enable the assembly of products in a highly efficient and flexible manner. In this context, the combination of different assembly organization principles to a new type of hybrid assembly is a promising approach. The research project (HyFlowJobShop) should therefore describe the production-logistic interrelationships in a hybrid assembly system, which results from a combination of line and workshop organization, as generally as possible. The aim is to do this on the basis of the effect of main influencing factors, such as the need for flexibility, on production-logistical performance and costs within the framework of an integrative performance and cost evaluation. Thus a well-founded, quantitative statement on the resulting system behaviour can be made. By involving industrial partners and developing an application demonstrator, the practicability and transferability into the economy will also be ensured. The aim of the research project, to enable a generally valid modelling of the effects of hybrid assembly organisations on the production-logistic target variables, is to create the basis for further research activities and the future design of hybrid, flow-oriented assembly system structures.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants