Manufacturing complexity in assembly systems with hybrid configurations and its impact on throughput

A measure of product variety induced manufacturing complexity has been proposed based on the choices of assembly activities that operators make in serial, manual mixed-model assembly lines. In this paper we extend the complexity measure to assembly systems with parallel and hybrid configurations. The complexity measure takes into consideration operator choices at each station and the assembly system configuration. In addition, we develop throughout analysis models for assembly systems by incorporating complexity based on the operator reaction time and fatigue effects. The complexity and throughput models are applied to comparing performance of assembly systems with different configurations.