Design of Assembly Workbench in Industrial Engineering Practicum I Using Reverse Engineering Method

Abstract

The assembly process is a critical component of the manufacturing cycle. As an approach to learning in higher education, this can be conducted through laboratory practicals. Industrial Engineering Practicum (PTI) 1 is one of the courses focusing on the creation of technical drawings for a product, the development of process plans, and the manufacturing process—including the assembly process with the project being the creation of a toy car using PVC foam as the raw material. Based on the laboratory sessions that have been conducted, several issues were identified, particularly during the assembly phase, namely a relatively long assembly cycle time reaching 1.7 hours (107 minutes). This study aims to design an assembly workbench that can standardize the assembly process. It is expected that the cycle time will be shorter, the workstations will be more neat and organized, and the product results will be more precise. The research was conducted using a Reverse Engineering approach, beginning with an analysis of the requirements and characteristics of each product component. Subsequently, benchmarking was performed on the assembly table design and component layout, as well as the design drawings of the workbench tailored to the needs of the laboratory experiment. The designed workbench, after testing, was then prototyped for testing through actual assembly processes in the laboratory. Test results for the assembly workbench at PTI 1 under the new standardization show an assembly cycle time of 61 minutes (a 43% reduction) with a lower level of variability. Workstations were 64% more neat and organized, and 84% very satisfied with the assembly workbench based on questionnaires completed by 13 lab assistants.