Drivers of Complexity in a Flexible Assembly System- A Case Study

Various ever-changing market demands have propelled manufacturing companies to offer product variety in an efficient and timely manner. Assembly as a key stage of manufacturing operations is used to realise product variety through establishing mixed-product assembly lines. Although establishing a flexible mixed-product assembly system which both offers product variety and absorbs market demands fluctuation is pivotal for maintaining competitive edge in certain industries such as vehicle manufacturing, it is also considered an elaborate task which calls for further investigation. In this paper, complexity in a flexible mixed-product assembly system is investigated and the key drivers of complexity are identified. To fulfil the research objective, a case study during the pilot implementation of a flexible mixed-product assembly concept in a heavy vehicle manufacturing company has been conducted. The results indicate the key factors concerning assembly operation, product design, and information and communication technology (ICT) which contribute to complexity in the flexible assembly system. The paper concludes with an outlook for possible future research.