Redesign of Parts Location Avoiding Operation Difficulty and Predetermination of Operation Time in Assembly Process

This paper presents redesign of parts location in a product by evaluating operation difficulty. Several significant factors affecting operation difficulty in assembly process are introduced. Relationship among these factors and rating values of operation time on different operations is analyzed from experiments using an actual Personal Computer (PC). Then, specific factors affecting operation difficulty are identified. In addition, a neural network is developed to predetermine operation time for the redesigned product. Focusing on the specific factors, parts location of the product is redesigned. The experiment using the actual redesigned PC shows that the identified factors affect the operation difficulty and the neural network can predetermine operation time required to assembly the redesigned product accurately.