out. In certain cases the equipment layouts are arranged so that the product in manufactured in a sequential and continuous arrangement. A good example would be an assembly line. Assembly lines can vary widely either they can be virtually 100 percent parts assembly by workers or by a transfer line where all the work being done is by machine.An assembly line is a special case of a product layout. In a general sense, the term assembly line refers to a progressive assembly linked by some type of material handling device (Davis, Aquilano, and Chase 257). The assumption being made is that some form of pacing is present and that allowable processing time is equivalent for all workstations. There are different types of assembly lines such as material handling devices (belt or roller conveyor), line configuration (U-shape, straight, or branching) and workstation characteristics where workers may sit, stand, walk with the line, or ride the line. An important factor not to be over looked is the human factor. Early assembly lines moved at a predetermined pace that means that the line moved ahead regardless of whether or not the work was completed. Under this structure, workers who fell behind had to rush and complete their assigned tasks, with the result often being faulty workmanship. In recent years this structure has changed instead of having machine-paced lines we now have worker-paced machine lines. The operator now continues to work on a product until the work assigned is satisfactorily completed at a station. The quality of the products being completed is significantly higher than the products being completed on the machine-paced lines. There is also a method being used called assembly line balancing where you assign all of the tasks required to a series of workstations so that the time required to do the work at each station does not exceed the cycle time and the idle time.Also used and commonly seen is group technology a form ...
