Increasing flexibility in consumer goods industry with the help of robotized systems

Abstract This paper discusses the performance measurement of an envisaged flexible production station, where automation devices, updateable tools and robotized resources have been introduced, that has been implemented in laboratory environment. The production station has been inspired by an existing one from the consumer goods industry, where hard automation solutions have been selected to achieve high productivity times. The aim of this paper is to prove how the combination of the aforementioned technologies can improve the reconfigurability and adaptability levels of an assembly station. In order to achieve this, a number of time values has been extracted from the real demonstrator, such as manipulation time, recognition time and transportation time of parts. Additionally, production information such as the number of failures after a successful number of assemblies has been measured as well. The design of the proposed system as well as the above information have been added in simulation environment and more specifically in the Witness Horizon Simulation tool in order to simulate its function using discrete event simulation approach so that the response of the suggested system is clear. After the simulation process, conclusions have been reached for the long-term behavior of the suggested flexible station, highlighting its advantages in terms of flexibility and adaptability, compared with the existing, hard-automated station that has already been installed in a consumer goods industrial production line.