European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Since the progression of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0), most machines in the assembly and production line have transformed into automated system and can be wirelessly controlled. In an Automated Assembly Line System (AALS), there are many different physical systems, classified according to its configurations. The two most used Automated Assembly Line Systems are U-Shaped Assembly System(USAS) and Straight-Line Assembly System(SLAS). Both configurations come with their own advantages and disadvantages which needs to be considered when designing an automated assembly line system. However, no empirical or experimental research has been done on the effects of using U-Shaped Assembly System compared to Straight-Line Assembly System in terms of Cycle Rate, Rc and overall system Efficiency, E. Therefore, this study aims to analyse and compare the two most used assembly line configurations. The analysis and comparison are achieved through findings from Microsoft Excel Calculations and simulation in Delmia Quest. The study attempts to choose the best assembly line configurations, examined in terms of the Cycle Rate, Rc and Efficiency, E. From the study conducted, the study finds the best assembly system layout in terms of Cycle Rate, Rc and Efficiency, E to be the U-Shaped Assembly System.

The manufacturing companies are competing among themselves to be the leading manufacturer in the share market. With the rapid increasing competition in the market, the companies need to improve their operation by producing high-quality products, operated at the lowest possible cost. Thus, to achieve this target, the bottleneck problem which affects the idle time and efficiency in the assembly line needs to be investigated. Besides, it also affects the production rate of the assembly line and can have a huge impact on the increase in operational costs. Since there are various line balancing algorithms available as the solution for the bottleneck problem, it is crucial to determine which line balancing algorithm works the best for the associated assembly line. Therefore, this study aims to analyze and compare the two most frequently used line balancing algorithms, which are the Largest Candidate Rule (LCR) and Ranked Positional Weights (RPW) algorithm. The studied applied to three different industries, which are electronic, food and automotive industries. The analysis and comparison are achieved through findings from Microsoft Excel calculation and simulation in Delmia Quest. The study indicates the best line balancing algorithm for the line balancing problem by these two parameters which are the line balance efficiency, Eb and the balance delay, d. According to the findings of the study, the best line balancing algorithm is dependable on the case study to be solved.