What is a Workstation ?

Detail of a workstation
    A workstation is a spot in the line where operations are carried out. Typically, a workstation represents a physical location along the line, with one or more operators available at the location to perform assembly operations.
    Workstations are typically connected to each other by a conveyor to which the products being assembled are attached. The direction of movement of the conveyor imprints a time order on the workstations: when following a point (a product) attached to the conveyor, the workstations in the line are successively visited by the point in a given order, represented by the left-to-right order of workstations in OptiLine.
    The assembly line as a whole is modeled in OptiLine by the workstations specified by the user. This implies that the number of workstations is fixed, as well as their properties. Note in particular that although the conveyor is typically moving at a constant speed, the time available at each workstation to carry out all operations assigned to it is not necessarily equal from one workstation to another. This provides an increased flexibility in designing the line.

    A workstation has the following attributes, editable in the Workstation Tab:

  • Cycle time: this is the target time available for completion of all operations assigned to the workstation on average, that is when the percentage of occurrence of each variant is taken into account. The automatic balancing optimization algorithm aims to balance the average workload of each workstation in the way that follows the cycle time profile of the line as closely as possible. Note that this does not mean that the cycle time of a given workstation will not be exceeded.
  • Peak time: this is the target time available for completion of all operations assigned to the workstation, whatever the variant being processed. The automatic balancing optimization algorithm aims to reduce the overflows of all peak times, ideally to zero (i.e. all peak times respected). Note that peak times can only be taken into account under the explicit variant model.
  • Number of operators: there may be one or more operators assigned to a given workstation. If there are more than one, all of the operators are working in parallel, some or all of them participating at the same time on operations requiring more than one operator.
  • Kind: an operation is either Manual or Robotic. Only operations a type compatible with the workstation's can be assigned to it.
  • A workstation belongs to one or more zones. Zones are editable in the Zoning Dialog. Only operations compatible with a workstation's zone can be assigned to it.
  • A workstation can have ergonomic constraints (working position) specified.