Integrated design of product families and assembly systems

This paper describes a methodology for the integrated design of product families and assembly processes. A product family is considered as a set of similar products whose main functions are identical. The primary goal is to obtain a unified and efficient assembly process for the whole product family. The product variations (e.g. dimensions, geometry, optional parts) and the assembly plans introduce the need for flexibility in the assembly process. Since flexibility implies more capital investments and productivity reduction, the minimization of the required flexibility is proposed as design criterion.