METHODOLOGY FOR INTERACTIVE DESIGN OF A PRODUCT AND ITS ASSEMBLY LINE.

This paper describes a methodology for the interactive design of a product and its assembly line. The main originality of this approach is to investigate heterogeneous lines, comprising manual, automatic and robotized workstations. The discussed methodology is based on the observation that essential characteristics of an optimal product design can be determined regardless of production conditions. In the first step, performances of all the assembly operations are evaluated for different assembly methods leading to an optimized product design and information for the assembly line design. The second step concentrates on the balance of the assembly line taking into account the required production volume.