Component kitting in semi-automated printed circuit board assembly

The component kitting problem in semi-automated printed circuit board (PCB) assembly concerns the allocation of components among various identical assembly stations while taking production time and component magazine capacity constraints into account. Before a component kit can be generated, jobs must be arranged in groups for processing at the same assembly station. Changeover from one kit to another requires considerable setup time. Therefore, the main objective is to minimize total operator time. This problem, although prevalent in industry, has not been researched extensively. In this paper, we describe the component kitting problem faced by an electronics manufacturer. A heuristic solution procedure is developed, which is computationally very efficient even for large-scale problems encountered in industry. Computational experience demonstrates that the heuristic tends to produce solutions which are close to the optimum.