SET-UP SAVING SCHEMES FOR PRINTED-CIRCUIT BOARDS ASSEMBLY

Focusing on a basic printed circuit board (PCB) assembly line configur ation characterized by very long set-up times, we examine two scheduli ng methods that can significantly reduce the set-up. Both methods - th e Grouped Set-Up (GSU) method that has been recently introduced in the literature and the Sequence Dependent Scheduling (SDS) method, which has not been studied in this context - are based on component commonal ity among PCB types. Using the typical traditional scheduling method a s a benchmark, the GSU and the SDS methods are compared in terms of th ree performance measures: line throughput, average work-in-process (WI P) inventory level, and implementation complexity. Guidelines for sele cting the most appropriate method for a given production environment a re proposed. The analysis is illustrated using real data from a typica l production line.