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Balancing a robotic spot welding manufacturing line: An industrial case study

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  • Lopes, Thiago Cantos
  • Sikora, C.G.S.
  • Molina, Rafael Gobbi
  • Schibelbain, Daniel
  • Rodrigues, L.C.A.
  • Magatão, Leandro

Abstract

Resistance spot welding is an important procedure used in the automobile manufacturing industry. After stamping, sheets of metal are mostly welded together to build the car’s body. Many of the industrial robots found in assembly lines are spot welders. Process characteristics include accessibility limitations, the need to move between welding points and (when there are multiple robots per station) potential interferences between robots. The combination of such characteristics is not present in classical models for the assembly line balancing problem. In this paper, the balancing problem of robotic spot welding manufacturing lines is presented and modeled based on a real-world car factory on the outskirts of Curitiba, Brazil. The studied line has 42 robots that perform over 700 welding points on the later stages of the body-shop. The model was developed with Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) techniques, validated with empirical data, and solved with a universal solver. The optimized balancing achieved a cycle time reduction of up to 6.6% compared to the as-is configurations. The total movement time was observed not to be necessarily minimized during the optimization process, implying that trade-offs exist between movement times and the number of welding points performed.

Suggested Citation

  • Lopes, Thiago Cantos & Sikora, C.G.S. & Molina, Rafael Gobbi & Schibelbain, Daniel & Rodrigues, L.C.A. & Magatão, Leandro, 2017. "Balancing a robotic spot welding manufacturing line: An industrial case study," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 263(3), pages 1033-1048.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:263:y:2017:i:3:p:1033-1048
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2017.06.001
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    2. Boysen, Nils & Schulze, Philipp & Scholl, Armin, 2022. "Assembly line balancing: What happened in the last fifteen years?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(3), pages 797-814.
    3. Battaïa, Olga & Dolgui, Alexandre, 2022. "Hybridizations in line balancing problems: A comprehensive review on new trends and formulations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    4. Kiesmüller, G.P. & Sachs, F.E., 2020. "Spare parts or buffer? How to design a transfer line with unreliable machines," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(1), pages 121-134.
    5. Michels, Adalberto Sato & Lopes, Thiago Cantos & Sikora, Celso Gustavo Stall & Magatão, Leandro, 2019. "A Benders’ decomposition algorithm with combinatorial cuts for the multi-manned assembly line balancing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 796-808.

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