dc.contributor.author	Wongwanich, Yodyot	en
dc.contributor.committeechair	Sturges, Robert H.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Smith-Jackson, Tonya L.	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Sizemore, Roger W.	en
dc.contributor.department	Industrial and Systems Engineering	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-14T20:42:50Z	en
dc.date.adate	2001-08-06	en
dc.date.available	2014-03-14T20:42:50Z	en
dc.date.issued	2001-07-27	en
dc.date.rdate	2002-08-06	en
dc.date.sdate	2001-08-06	en
dc.description.abstract	In spite of advances in industrial automation, manual assembly tasks continue to be an important feature of many industrial operations. In heavy part assembly, some pieces of raw material or equipment are too heavy to be safely handled by an operator. Material handling devices such as Jib cranes or overhead cranes are employed to help operators work safer and, in some cases, faster. However, during full-load productions, these devices could become limited and insufficient resources and hence, delay or extend the cycle times. Not only may the companies not be able to ship the products on time, but the labor and overhead costs also increase from the workers' increased idle time as they wait for a turn to use the devices. Finding a way to utilize the material handling devices more effectively could significantly reduce the total cycle times and production costs. An assembly task could be separated into three steps: transferring, approaching or positioning, and joining or fixing. The transferring time is principally dependent on the distance. The joining time could be directly reduced by increasing the efficiency of the joining machines. However, the positioning time depends on task difficulties, handling methods, and operators' skills. Therefore, this research focuses on how to specify the task difficulties and improve the efficiency of the handling methods. In this research, metal plates were used to represent heavy parts. Four handling methods were studied including One-person, Two-person team, One person with an overhead crane, and One person with a spring-equipped overhead crane. This study applies Fitts' Index of Difficulty as a guideline to determine task difficulty. The results indicate that, for all methods mentioned above, the relationships between moment time and task difficulty are linear. The results also show that, for a part that weights up to 40 pounds, a two-person team gives the fastest assembly time for every task difficulty. In addition, the assembly performance of one person with an overhead crane could be increased approximately 250% by adding a spring between the hook and the gripper.	en
dc.description.degree	Master of Science	en
dc.identifier.other	etd-08062001-125706	en
dc.identifier.sourceurl	http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08062001-125706/	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/34370	en
dc.publisher	Virginia Tech	en
dc.relation.haspart	Appendix.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	Ch7.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	Ch4.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	Ch6.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	Ch1.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	Ch2.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	Ch3.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	Ch8.pdf	en
dc.relation.haspart	TITLE.PDF	en
dc.relation.haspart	Ch5.pdf	en
dc.rights	In Copyright	en
dc.rights.uri	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/	en
dc.subject	Heavy Parts	en
dc.subject	Design for Assembly	en
dc.subject	Plate Assembly	en
dc.title	Design for Assembly Methods for Large and Heavy Plates: An experimental Design	en
dc.type	Thesis	en
thesis.degree.discipline	Industrial and Systems Engineering	en
thesis.degree.grantor	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	en
thesis.degree.level	masters	en
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science	en

Design for Assembly Methods for Large and Heavy Plates: An experimental Design

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