Bottleneck Analysis of Assembly Lines with Characteristic Curves

Tuning the performance parameters of all stations of interlinked manufacturing and assembly systems to ensure the planned capacity is a major challenge. The application of system simulation for this task is little common, particularly in SMEs. A suitable tool for quickly assessing the specific influence of a standalone station on the entire system performance has been developed on the basis of the characteristic curve theory. The applied methodology and the results obtained are presented in this paper.