The Complete Guide to Designing an Automatic Assembly Line

Automatic assembly lines can bring measurable benefits to the people who use them. Those advantages include higher output, lower injury rates and improved scalability. However, people must put significant thought into automatic assembly line design before expecting those positive results.

Assess the Manufacturing Environment

Begin by studying the area where you intend to place the assembly line. Getting details about the surroundings will ensure you build something that can withstand them and operate in the environment without breaking down. Pay attention to factors such as:

• Temperature: Does this part of the factory regularly experience extreme temperatures? If so, you must ensure the components used to make it can handle them.
• Humidity: High humidity can lead to worker discomfort, but it can also affect automatic assembly line functionality. That's most likely to occur if the excessive humidity causes condensation.
• Dust: Placing an assembly line in a dusty area requires additional planning, including placing barriers on machinery to prevent particles from getting inside. Situating the assembly line in an overly dusty area could also prove inappropriate, depending on the items produced on the equipment.
• Available Space: Examine how much space you have for handling finished items as they come off the assembly line or loading raw materials onto them. Plan for things such as how busy the area is and whether it usually has both foot and vehicular traffic.
• Suitability for Growth: There may come a time relatively soon when you want or need to expand the assembly line. Does the current area under consideration allow for that? If not, consider whether it's more appropriate to choose a different location that allows for more future flexibility.

Awareness of factors like these helps you cover your bases with automatic assembly line design. It naturally reduces unintended consequences that could cause wasted time or money.

Set the Budget and Timeline

Creating an automatic assembly line can be extremely resource-intensive. That's one of the reasons why electric vehicle startup Arrival is trying to build automobiles without them. The company claims it can make micro-factories for about $50 million instead of the $1 billion it could take to build a traditional factory.

But you may already have a fully functional factory and just need another assembly line. That's a comparatively less expensive prospect, but it still requires adequate resources and decision-maker approval.

It's also necessary to plan how quickly you need to finish the assembly line. Settling on that aspect makes it easier to determine how advanced or extensive you'll make it. You may also need to redesign an assembly line to meet a new need.

Such was the case with automaker Renault when the company had to change its assembly line to accommodate electric vehicle production. That project required seven weeks of construction. People also had to move 400 assembly line stations and use 100 robots and pieces of heavy machinery. One step of the project also involved clearing out 38,000 square meters of space.

While making decisions about the budget and timeline, try to adopt the mindset that taking enough time now instead of rushing will pay off in the long run by creating opportunities for the assembly line to operate smoothly rather than encountering problems.

Incorporate Equipment Into the Automatic Assembly Line Design

It's now time to decide what equipment the automatic assembly line needs. Making the right choices starts by thinking about what processes will occur during production and what items the company makes.

Equipment can also span multiple industries. For example, air compressors can prevent cross-contamination in the food sector. Compressed air also powered many of the machines that assemble and repair cars. Moreover, an oil-free air compressor is essential in pharmaceutical production, which requires sterile air.

Your assembly line will also need conveyor belts or similar movement technologies to transport items from one place to another. The smooth and continuous flow of goods is what makes assembly lines so efficient. Plan on also having a visual system where someone can see instances where assembly lines have stopped due to issues. It's then easy to spot and troubleshoot those problems.

See where equipment like totes and carts fit into your automatic assembly line design, too. Even if most or all of the things happening on the assembly line are automated, you'll still need people to restock parts. Carts and totes help them do that quickly and without straining.

If your assembly line needs hoses to maintain cleanliness or facilitate changeovers, plan for those in the design, as well. Speaking of keeping things clean, design your assembly line with flooring that's easy to maintain. Consider the risk of spills or small particles getting into grooves or openings between floor panels, and select flooring with those possibilities in mind.

The equipment considerations must also extend to connectivity components. The Industrial Internet of Things allows machines to interact and generate data that improve operations. The assembly line also needs information technology and operational technology integrations.

Choose the Most Appropriate Processes to Automate

Automation equipment performs best when asked to do repetitive tasks with little or no variation. That means you may need to plan for some human engagement within your automatic assembly line design, such as allowing enough room for people to sit at workstations and handle responsibilities too advanced for automated machines.

Another thing to assess is which tasks are the most time-consuming or prone to errors. In one case, people created an automated assembly line to accelerate the process of building combat jets. This change caused a reduction in the hours needed to make a plane from 132 to 98 hours. It also allowed a 75% decrease in the time required for manufacturing forward fuselages.

A drastic change in production volume could be another clue it's time to automate specific processes. People handle this common problem in numerous ways. They might add team members or make another shift. However, another possibility is implementing robots that supplement human capabilities or do entire tasks themselves. Even in the latter case, you should plan to have people supervising the robots at work.

Speaking to team members could give valuable insights about which tasks to automate. Do they find particular duties hard on their bodies, cumbersome or otherwise less than ideal? If so, get in-depth details about why and see if the things they mention give you ideas for automating the tasks with your assembly line.

Plan for the Future

Besides considering the strategies discussed above as you work out the details of the automatic assembly line design, think about how the company's needs may change relatively soon. Making parts of the assembly line modular or easy to update could be a smart move now that allows for faster, less expensive changes later.