Design and scheduling of flexible assembly lines for printed circuit boards

A particular approach for the design of printed circuit board assembly lines integrated with a scheduling methodology is proposed. The goal of the design and scheduling methodology is to maximize the throughput of the system while keeping work-in-process inventory levels to a minimum. The proposed design is based on the notion that it is easier to control and schedule flow lines than general production lines because for a flow line the scheduling problem is reduced to a sequencing problem. Experimental results of the proposed approach for an electronics manufacturer suggest that by implementing the approach the company can reduce inventory and achieve high throughput levels.