Use of Nesting Workstations in Assembly

Abstract Over the years there has been a fixed idea that components just enter the assembly floor and that assembled products leave it subsequently after certain operations have been executed on such products. Besides, there is a common notion that only small and simple products can be assembled on the so called “assembly nests”; however, the dimensions of objects assembled inside these keep increasing. Nowadays, even an aircraft, a boat, etc. can also be assembled on a moving trolley. This is possible given to the fact that the trolley with the product and with the operators themselves may come to the same storage of parts, while the system does not need to be balanced in time. On the other hand, in assembly nested layouts, the productivity of one operator is usually higher than the productivity on the line station and this because such lines are not often time balanced. Besides, this is also enhanced by the fact that more than one operator can work on a single nest. In this regard, the present paper seeks to identify the ways of combining or assembling components into products, and to analyse quality of the abovementioned assembly approaches.