Performance analysis of assembly systems with highlift stations: a practical approach

One common problem associated with automatic assembly systems is that some assembly operations may have relatively long cycle times. As a consequence, the productivity, as determined by the operations with the longest cycle time, can be significantly reduced. Therefore, a special form of parallel workstation known as a highlift station was developed to improve the performance of an automatic assembly system. In this paper, we present a simple analytical model that can help engineers to estimate the performance of highlift stations. This model is particularly useful at the design stage, as only approximate results are necessary for selecting the configuration.