Mapping work content allocation on an assembly cell

Abstract

Work content allocation influences manpower utilisation and reachable output of a production cell. Usually, process maps show the order of precedence of technology steps, and workstations are defined so that neighbouring steps are performed on a bench, as far as constraints allow. The need of balancing operator work load might result in having one person serving neighbouring stations or benches. This study aims to use graph theory and introduce bipartite graphs as a new approach to analyse work content allocation to work benches and workers. In this study, a set of nodes represents workers on the cell, and another set consists of the job elements; and edges connecting the nodes in the two distinct sets are representing a job element being completed by a worker. A projection of such a bigraph draws the backbone of the process flow chart, whereas another projection might indicate the connection and handover points between workers. A very similar projection is definable for the connection of workstations with valuable insights of potential layout improvements of a cell. A possible application of drawing bipartite graphs of a manufacturing cell is to find out alternative ways of allocating work content, and harvesting ideas for brainstorming the layout improvements of the cell.