Process planning based on workplan structure separated from balancing structure

Starting from V6R2014 some new capabilities will allow the user to do :

- process planning based on automotive final assembly approach (planning definition separated from balancing)

- automatic line balancing (using the planning defined in a workplan structure as specification for balancing)

Workplan system structure VS line/station system structure

1st one: Workplan system structure allows the process planner to create, organize and detail all the operations required to build a given product

2nd one: Line/Station/Workplace system structure will allow the manufacturing engineer to balance all the previously specified operations across the production line

Important: There is no duplication of the data between workplan and line system structures. You will have 2 instances of the same operation reference and an implement link between them.

You will take benefit from the model of scopes and implement links between structures to easily identify what is already assigned, what has to be assigned and what has to be updated (the management of inconsistent link functionality will also support this new approach)

"Strong" constraints specifications for the balancing

The process planner can define some "strong" precedence constraints between operations in the workplan structure.

These constraints will be taken as specification for balancing. The manufacturing engineer in charge of the balancing will be able to add some other precedence constraints but will not be able to delete those defined in the workplan structure by the process planner.

Automatic balancing

Once the planning has been specified by the process planner in the workplan structure, the manufacturing engineer in charge of the balancing will be able to use the work of the process planner as input specification for his work.

For this he has two options:

- Full manual balancing:

- Automatic balancing which can be combined with manual balancing as well

This new functionality of automatic balancing has to be used with a workplan structure as input and line/station system structure as target.

Some business rules have been added to enable some customization for balancing constraints like workplace position specification on the operations (see the example in the video at the end)

VALUES:

This new approach will be especially helpful to support the automotive final assembly workflow.

In fact we will have in V6 a similar approach that we already have in E5/V5 for Automotive Final Assembly. Planning definition and balancing are separated as the planning is specified independently from balancing. Planning definition and balancing is also usually done by different users.

This approach allows to have different production sites using the same workplan structure (share the same operations between different sites). If needed you can also have some specific operations related to specific sites and for this you will have to use configurations features.

Any design or process update will have no direct impact on the balancing side.

The automatic balancing is a helpful functionality to initiate the balancing while taking into account some customizable constraints.