An iot-enabled entanglement management framework for fixed-position assembly islands

Fixed-position assembly islands is a layout in which products remain in one location for its entire assembly period. During the assembly processes, required workers, tools and materials are moved to the assembly island. Such configuration is not only suitable for producing large, bulky, heavy or fragile products, but also offers considerable flexibility and competitive operational efficiency for products with medium variety and production volumes. However, inherent complex assembly processes and highly dynamic material flow and workforce assignment increase the complexity and chaotic dynamics in fixed-position assembly islands. The situation becomes worse when the system subjects to the occurrence of unexpected disturbances. It will provoke deviations from the initial plans and degrades the system’s performance. In this paper, the entanglement mechanisms including job task pool disturbances control, material task pool disturbances control and real-time production disturbances control are developed to control the material flow, workflow and real-time production in fixed-position assembly islands simultaneously. An IoT–enabled entanglement management framework is proposed with web-based services for managers and mobile app-based services for onsite operators. Integrating entanglement mechanisms with information visibility and traceability the IoT–enabled system provided, it can achieve the optimal solutions while minimizing the degradation of the system’s performance when confronting unexpected disturbances under such dynamic production environment.