Group set-up for printed circuit board assembly

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Abstract
The current practice in the assembly of electronic components on printed circuit boards (PCBs) is serial production, a process characterized by very long set-up times. However, with the advent of efficient on-line process information, new production control methods are now possible. This paper proposes a different production method, called the group set-up (GSU) method, which can significantly reduce set-up times. The traditional and the GSU production methods are compared, and it is shown that the GSU always performs better than the traditional method in terms of total production flow (throughput) and labour time. However, the traditional method performs better than the GSU in terms of work in process (WIP) inventory; and in some cases, in terms of makespan (lead time). A detailed analysis for a small number of PCBs is presented.