SIMULTANEOUS COMPONENT SEQUENCING AND FEEDER ASSIGNMENT FOR HIGH-SPEED CHIP SHOOTER MACHINES

This paper proposes a methodology for efficient process planning of co ncurrent machines in electronics assembly The particular machine type under consideration is the High Speed Chip Shooter (HSCS) for surface mount assembly. Currently, most surface mount assembly operations are modeled in a cyclic manner. The model that is proposed herein is an as ynchronous (acyclic) model that augments the benefits of the unique fe atures of this assembly machine. A heuristic algorithm is developed, r eferred to as the Acyclic Assembly Time (AAT) algorithm, which is base d on the asynchronous model. The algorithm is thoroughly tested with o rthogonal arrays, compared against previously published problems, and applied to a real life example. The AAT algorithm produced excellent r esults throughout the test process. By increasing the utilization of t he individual mechanisms, the efficiency of the overall system natural ly improves and the ultimate goal of reducing the total assembly time is achieved.