Abstract
Introducing collaborative robots (cobots) into multistage manufacturing flow lines presents significant opportunities but also challenges for production systems. This study explores the use of discrete event simulation (DES) as a powerful tool to support the integration of cobots in a high-volume flow line, where varying order lot sizes are processed across multiple stages. Thus far, human operators perform manufacturing tasks in a predefined sequence in this system. During the redesign project, specific tasks were identified and reallocated to cobots through a structured decision-making process, requiring coordination across various organizational levels and collaboration with experts from within the company and external partners. To capture the dynamic nature and stochasticity of the flow line, we use a DES-model that explicitly factors in the variability of task execution times, including those newly assigned to cobots, by using distribution functions for effective processing times (PTs). Thus, with the DES-model we (1) address critical challenges that may arise from task reallocation from human operators to cobots and (2) mitigate these multifaceted challenges that arise from decision-making complexity, system constraints and dynamics.