Standard Assembly Time Setting in an Early Stage of Product Development

Standard assembly time is an important piece of data in product development that is used to compare different product variants or manufacturing variants. In the presented approach, standard time is created with the use of a decision tree regarding standard manual and machine-manual operations, taking into consideration product characteristics and typical tools, equipment and layout. The analysed features include, among others: information determined during product development, such as product structure, parts characteristics (e.g. weight, size), connection type, as well as the information determined during assembly planning: tools (e.g. hand screw driver, power screw driver, pliers), equipment (e.g. press, heater), workstation layout (e.g. distance, way of feeding). The object-attribute-value (OAV) framework was applied for the assembly characteristic. An example of the decision tree application to predict standard assembly time was presented for a mechanical subassembly. The case study was dedicated to standard time prediction for a bearing assembly. The presented approach is particularly important for the enterprises which offer customized products