Digital Assembly Assistance Systems – A Case Study

As the number of variations increases and batch sizes grow smaller, it can be difficult to fulfill quality and productivity requirements in manual assembly, as employees must record, process and interpret more information, then convert that information into action. Conventional instruction manuals in the form of text, tables or drawings quickly reach their limits. Innovative assistance systems are essential for keeping up with these changes, as they instruct and support employees in line with their specific situations. The goal of this article is to use a case study to illustrate the problems with providing information in manual assembly, and to suggest a potential solution in the form of an informational assistance system. The company considered in the case study stands out for its large production areas where complex, customer-specific truck bodies are mounted manually.