Track: Industrial Management

Abstract

With the development of advanced technologies (i.e. indoor GPS, radio-frequency identification and bar-code), there is more available information related to the assembly line. The assembly system will be more intelligent when one workstation is aware of the states of other workstations and adjusts its production rate based on the information of the assembly line rather than just focusing on information related to itself. In this way, workstations can adjust their production rates in time in order to improve the efficiency of the whole assembly line. In this study, a fuzzy controller is used to make the production rate adjustment, and there is one fuzzy controller responsible for each workstation. Real-time information will be processed by fuzzy controllers, and real-time decisions will be made to prevent blocking and staving as well maintain a low-level work-in-process (WIP) inventory. Simulation experiments are done with Simulink, and the results show that assembly system with fuzzy controllers can satisfy the predetermined demand and achieve a lower WIP inventory level.