COMPONENT FIXTURE POSITIONING SEQUENCING FOR PRINTED-CIRCUIT BOARD ASSEMBLY WITH CONCURRENT OPERATIONS/

This paper considers the problem of positioning component fixtures on the carriers of computer, numerically controlled dual delivery machine s used for populating printed circuit boards with surface mounted tech nology. This reel positioning problem (RPP) is one of a series of opti mization problems that are critical for improving system productivity and realizing the full potential of concurrent operations. We formulat e the RPP as a mathematical program and establish its complexity. Sinc e the problem is NP-complete we focus on the development of heuristics . Our solution procedure was prompted by engineering considerations th at included concerns for minimizing the changes in the carrier directi on and total movement. We also present encouraging results with test p roblems. The method has been implemented and achieved 7 to 8% reductio ns in cycle time.