PCB ASSEMBLY SETUP REDUCTION USING GROUP TECHNOLOGY

The aim of this paper is to present a practical method to reduce setups for PCB assembly machines by improving the assembly sequence. First, we introduce an integer programming (IP) formulation that gives the optimal sequences. However, this IP formulation demands too much computation. Next, we take a three-step approach. Grouping PCBs is the first step and we apply a new heuristic grouping method. Second step is ordering the groups and we treat this problem as a traveling salesman problem. Third step is the component assignment to the machine and a new algorithmic method is presented. This approach is shown to be efficient for large-size very industrial problems.