Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Design of manufacturing cells: Operation assignment in printed circuit board manufacturing

  • Papers
  • Published:
Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We consider an operation assignment problem that arose from a printed circuit (PC) board assembly process. Components can either be inserted on boards manually or by machine. The objective is to determine an assignment of components (operations) to a set of capacitated machines (with the remainder of the components inserted manually) to minimize the total set-up and processing cost for assembling all boards. The problem can be formulated as a mixed integer linear program, but is too large to be practically solved. For the case of one machine, we present two different solution heuristics. We show that while each can be arbitrarily bad, on average the algorithms perform quite well. For the case of multiple machines, we present four different solution heuristics. We discuss implementation of our results at Hewlett-Packard.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ahmadi, J., Grotzinger, S. and Johnson, D. (1986) Component allocation and partitioning for a dual delivery machine.Research Paper, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ammons, J. C., Lofgren, C. B. and McGinnis, L. F. (1985) A large sclae machine problem in flexible assembly.Annals of Operations Research,3, 319–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chakravarty, A. K. and Schtub, A. (1984) Selecting Parts and Loading an FMS, inProceedings of the First ORSA/TIMS Conference on Flexible Manufacturing Systems. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crama, Y., Kolen, A. W. J. and Oerlmans, A. G. (1991) Throughput rate optimization in the automated assembly of printed circuit boards.Annals of Operations Research, to be published.

  • Davis, T. (1990) Group Technology for PCBA: Applving the ‘Greedy Board’ Cell Heuristic.Technical Report, Hewlett-Packard Co., California, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, M. (1980) Worst case analysis of heuristic algorithms.Management Science,26, 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kouvelis, P. and Lee, H. L. (1991) Block angular structures and the loading problem in flexible manufacturing systems.Operations Research, to be published.

  • Kusiak, A. and Chow, W. S. (1988) Decomposition of Manufacturing Systems,IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation,4, 457–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langston, M. A. (1987) A Study of composite heuristic algorithms.J. of Operational Research Society,38, 539–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarin, S. C. and Chen, S. C. (1987) The machine loading and tool allocation problem in an FMS.International Journal of Production Research,25, 1081–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stecke, K. E. (1983) Formulation and solution of nonlinear integer production planning problems for flexible manufacturing systems.Management Science,29, 273–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang, C. S. and Denardo, E. (1988a) Models arising from a flexible manufacturing machine—Part I: minimizing of the number of tools switches.Operations Research,36, 767–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang, C. S. and Denardo, E. (1988b) Models arising from a flexible manufacturing machine—Part II: minimizing of the number of switchin instants.Operations Research,36, 778–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Welker, D. (1988) Low volume production using high volume equipment.Printed Circuit Assembly.February, 6–10.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, CA, USA

    M. L. Brandeau

  2. Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Product Generation Team, Strategic Planning and Modeling Group, 94304, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    C. A. Billington

Authors
  1. M. L. Brandeau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C. A. Billington
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brandeau, M.L., Billington, C.A. Design of manufacturing cells: Operation assignment in printed circuit board manufacturing. J Intell Manuf 2, 95–106 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01471222

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01471222

Keywords

Search

Navigation