Staging problem of a dual delivery pick-and-place machine in printed circuit card assembly

This paper addresses a material staging problem arising from a dual delivery pick-and-place machine that is used for the assembly of printed circuit boards where components are attached using ‘surface mount technology.’ The staging problem of such machines involves allocation of component feeders to its two-feeder carriers along with the corresponding sets of vacuum nozzles to dispense the components. The usual managerial objective for the staging problem is minimization of the total time required to populate the circuit boards, i.e., the pick-and-place machine’s cycle time. For the dual delivery pick-and-place machines this implies minimization of the workload imbalance between the two carriers and reduction of the number of vacuum nozzle changes required. In this paper, the authors develop algorithms to optimally solve the single and multiple product staging problem for the above managerial objectives.