Assembly

An Assembly will assemble several variants/products according to the specifications in the Assembly tables. The assembly of variants/products starts as soon as all required variants/parts (of one of the assembly tables) have reached the Assembly object. Once the assembly starts it is the processing time that determines how long time the assembly will take, the assembly time might be prolonged due to process disturbances.

Note: Assembled parts will be viewed as one part determined by the assembly identity described in more detail under Assembly tables. For instance this means that an assembly is counted as only one part in objects and logics such as Stores, MaxWIPs, CritcalWIPs, Kanbans, and Demands.

Settings

The settings of the Assembly are listed below along with a short description and possibly a link to a more detailed description about the setting.

Setting

Description

Name	Sets the name of the object.
Location	Displays the location of the object.
Container first	Boolean stating if the container part must enter before the other parts are allowed to enter the Assembly.
Assembly tables	This setting will decide how variants are assembled on the Assembly-object. See Assembly table for more information.
Force assembly	Used to specify a maximum time that the Assembly object should wait for parts before an assembly of the present parts are forced even if it they are not complete. This timer is started once the first part enters the Assembly object. Note: Default assembly behavior used if this time is not set, i.e. if left blank the Assembly object will wait until one of the
Process time	The process time of the Assembly models the time it will take the Assembly to assemble the variants/products. See process time for more details. Note: When using a table with variant specific processing times the processing time will be set after the variant being the container in the Assembly tables.
Process time EPT	Used to add additional variations to processing time. These variations could be due to natural variations in execution time of the task and be set to {none, manual}. Default this is set to none. None: No additonal variation is added. Manual: This adds variations that will mimic variations seen on an task performed by a human. These variations include all types of disturbances, both failures and human variations in execution of the task. Variations in human execution might for example be due to talking to a coworker or going to the toilet. This is done using something called Effective Process Time (EPT), which in this implementation is based on real data from a case performed in the automotive industry. Note: Disturbances set this way will be added to the processing time and hence be logged as working in the output, see the output utilization.
Setup time	The setup time of the object models (if used) times for setting up the object for an other variant than the previously processed one. See setup time for more details.
Setup time EPT	Used to add additional variations to setup time. These variations could be due to natural variations in execution time of the task and be set to {none, manual}. Default this is set to none. None: No additonal variation is added. Manual: This adds variations that will mimic variations seen on an task performed by a human. These variations include all types of disturbances, both failures and human variations in execution of the task. Variations in human execution might for example be due to talking to a coworker or going to the toilet. This is done using something called Effective Process Time (EPT), which in this implementation is based on real data from a case performed in the automotive industry. Note: Disturbances set this way will be added to the setup time and hence be logged as setup in the output, see the output utilization.
Resources	Specifies skills needed, if any, for performing different task on this object, e.g. repairing a failure. More information about this can be found here.
Disturbance	A detailed description about disturbances can be found here.
Exit Strategy	The exit strategy sets how variants/products should exit from the object to its successors. See exit strategy for more details.
Dispatch	The dispatch setting sets how variants/products waiting to enter the object should be prioritized. See dispatch for more details.
Timetable	If the object follows a certain Timetable it will be shown here. The input-field has a drop-down containing all timetables in the model as well as an option none. Using this drop-down it is possible to select a different timetable or remove the timetable from the object by selecting none.
User attributes	Lists all attributes that the user has added to the object. See User attributes for more details.