CHAPTER 7

AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS - Introduction

Introduction
Automated assembly
- is a natural outgrowth of the Industrial Revolution
and represents one of the most efficient and cost-effective
methods of manufacturing modern consumer and
industrial products.

Early manufacturing is often referred to as the

“craftsman” era in which an individual would design and build
an entire article, usually one at a time, for his or her own use.
Eventually some folks began specializing in building specific
products for sale to the community, but the manufacturing
methods were still relatively crude by modern standards.
 Eli Whitney
- is recognized as a pioneer in the use of
interchangeable parts in manufacturing. This concept was
largely driven by the Colonial firearms industry and gave
birth to the American concept of mass production.
The Industrial Revolution ushered in the “assembly line”
era which greatly increased production and efficiency, but
was still relatively labor-intensive. This system, in which a
worker might fabricate only a small piece of the whole
product and never see the completed product, often
resulted in a lower worker satisfaction and a disconnection
from the craftsman concept of pride in workmanship.

It was the transition to new manufacturing

processes in Europe and the United States, in the
period from between 1760 to 1820 and 1840. ... The
Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and many of
the technological and architectural innovations were of
British origin.
 Ransome Eli Olds
- Invented the basic concept of the assembly line in
1901 with the first mass-produced automobile (the
“curved-dash” Oldsmobile), it was Henry Ford who
invented an improved assembly line and installed the first
conveyor belt–based assembly line in his factory around
1913–14. The assembly line reduced production costs for
cars by reducing assembly time, allowing Ford’s famous
Model T to be assembled in ninety-three minutes.
The increasing sophistication of machine tools, controls,
and processes in the mid to late 1900s, as well as ever-
increasing labor costs, fueled the interest in automated
assembly. The increasing availability, sophistication, and
processing power of modern programmable logic
controllers, solid state machine control systems, robotics,
and vision systems provide manufacturers with cost-
effective manufacturing methods unheard of only a few
decades ago.
Some argue that modern automation eliminates assembly
jobs and has a negative effect on job creation, but one
must keep three important factors in mind:

• Automation can enhance worker and plant safety by

performing many hazardous operations to which workers
should not be exposed.
• Many of the jobs performed by automation are
tedious, repetitive operations that offer workers little in
terms of job satisfaction, interest, or variety.
• As technological advancements continue to create the
ability to engineer and manufacture more compact
medical and electrical devices, automation can create a
precise and statistically controlled repetitive environment
based on quality.
Many manufacturers retrain workers who formerly
performed these tedious tasks to operate and maintain the
automation equipment. This results in a higher
accomplishment level job and increased job satisfaction for
the worker, and decreased costs and higher productivity
for the manufacturer.
With greater pressure in today’s society to bring products
to market faster and more economically, it is important for
manufacturers to investigate and evaluate the need to
automate their production. Some products justify
automation much easier than others.
For example, a precision medical device that needs to be
produced by the millions, and that requires statistical
tracking of product codes, inspection results, and product
quality issues would probably be a good candidate for
automation. In contrast, a low-quantity product that
requires manual assembly and/or inspections might not
justify the expense of automation. One must keep in mind
that automated assembly does not need to be an “all or
nothing” approach and it is quite common to have a semi-
automated production line.
The next time you walk though your favorite store, look at
the vast variety of products ranging from toothbrushes to
children’s toys. Someone or something has manufactured
the item, formed the box or container, placed the item in
the container, applied a label or printed a code onto the
container, loaded the container into a shipping carton,
then taped or shrink-wrapped the carton and placed it on
a pallet or skid. Most of these steps were performed by
automated equipment.
That makes automation projects interesting for engineers
and designers is the staggering variety to which ever-
changing technologies can be applied to the manufacture
and packaging of the products we all use everyday.