Achieving Economic Sustainability via Low-Cost Automation Techniques: A Novel Study
摘要
The trend toward mass customization of products requires a high degree of flexibility in their production. Traditional and well-established production concepts such as full automation are limited for these products due to their high acquisition costs. Hence, there is a need for a cost-effective, flexible automation in production. However, there is currently a lack of methodology for determining the appropriate level of automation in flexible low quantity productions. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a generalized model for estimating the optimal Degree of Automation, which is evaluated through a case study focusing on the assembly of aerospace modules. In the presented case study two different modules have to be assembled within 5 tasks. The derived model proposed an optimal Degree of Automation of 21%, which were evaluated based on a designed demonstrator.