Workforce Allocation in Motorcycle Transmission Assembly Lines: A Case Study on Modeling, Analysis, and Improvement

This letter presents a case study of workforce allocation in a gear assembly line at a motorcycle powertrain manufacturing plant. Through structural modeling of operators' work flow and part flow, assembly system models with different configurations are developed. Using iterative aggregation techniques, the performances of such systems are analyzed, and the associated workforce allocation strategies are investigated. By identifying and mitigating system bottlenecks, improvement recommendations are obtained. Such a study provides an effective method for operator assignment in assembly systems.