Continuously moving assembly lines can move as slow as they need to, to fit the work on the length of the line. However, they cannot be as fast as you like. There are some limitations on the speed of the line due to the limitations of the walking speed of a human worker, and even more so due to the ability of the worker to do work while the line moves. Let’s have a look!
Continuously Moving Assembly Line
The Particularities of Continuously Moving Assembly Lines
Continuously moving assembly lines are commonly found in industry, especially high-volume production. Most final assembly lines in automotive are continuously moving lines, but there are also many more examples in industry. Such lines have many of the same requirements of pulsed or untimed lines, but in a few specific circumstances continuously moving lines can have an advantage. This first post of this small series looks at the basic commonalities and differences between pulsed and continuously moving lines. The next posts looks at the mathematical relation between speed, work content, and line length, before a third post explores in more depth the unique issues of line balancing for continuously moving assembly lines. A final post looks at some unique features for continuously moving assembly lines.