Productivity Enhancement of Automatic Meter Reading Control Box Assembly Line

Abstract

Currently, the problem of the of Automatic Meter Reading Control Box (AMR) assembly department of the case study company is the different workload in each workstation which results in high idle time of the workers. At the same time, the AMR assembly process is discontinuous and has high production cost. Therefore, this research intends to balance the AMR assembly line. The main objectives are to increase the labor productivity and reduce the production cost. The study begins from collecting data from the workers, determines the standard time and proposes five improvement guidelines based on the number of workers in the assembly line. The assembly line is balanced by Kilbridge & Wester method. Five proposed guidelines are simulated by Arena program. The simulation results show that the fifth improvement guideline delivers the best results according to the objectives. It has the highest labor productivity and lowest unit labor cost. The average labor productivity is 24.83 units per worker, increased by 63.36 percent and the unit labor cost is 12.08 baht, decreased by 38.80 percent. In addition, this guideline employs only six workers, decreased four workers from the current practice. It produces AMR 149 units, decreased by 1.97 percent. The average time is 3.11 minutes, increased by 2.64 percent. The assembly line efficiency is 94.17 percent, increased by 51.64 percent.