Nested partitions method for assembly sequences merging

The severe competition in the market has driven enterprises to produce a wider variety of products to meet consumer’s need. However, frequent variation of product specification and more complexity of product cause the assembly sequence planning of product become more and more complicated. As a result, the issue of assembly sequence planning of complex product becomes a problem which is worthy of concern. In this study, a methodology for assembly sequence planning of complex components is presented, which consists of three phases: assembly-based modular design, assembly subsequences generation for each module and assembly sequences merging. Nested partitions (NP) method is used to merge assembly subsequences. Assembly sequences merging can make full use of subsequences information of modules and simplify assembly sequence planning of the complex products. A desk lamp is used as an example for implementation to validate the feasibility of this research.