Samenvatting

Abstract
The ever-increasing demand for custom products creates challenges for production companies.
In cellular manufacturing systems like the U-shaped assembly cell (USAC), high product
variety and fluctuations in demand have become harder to deal with. An increase in flexibility
is required to continue providing the correct quality. Operators of the USAC are required to
have an increased set of skills. Also, more precise management of these operators is required
to prevent the lack of performance.
To preserve the performance of a USAC, I4.0 technologies and their providing data help cope
with the mandatory changes. It provides the ability to operate in such a volatile environment.
Nevertheless, the way human resources should be dealt with is still unknown. It should be
investigated how many operators should be present within the cell and where these should be
positioned when signs of demand changes come forward. Therefore, through a simulation
study, this research presents when to change staffing levels and how to allocate operators in the
USAC by using I4.0 available data to improve the performance of the USAC.
By doing so, efficiency gains were made possible by decreasing the cost of labour. Fewer
operators were required in the USAC to produce the same number of products in the same
amount of time. However, lead times increased, and due dates were met less often. A trade-off
presented itself between cost efficiency and being able to meet due dates. Furthermore, the
impact factor for staff reassignments determined to what extent the use of staffing level methods
is beneficial. Moreover, staff levelling practices have proven to make it possible to cope with
seasonal demand automatically.
Whether the cell's performance is increased or decreased depends on the definition of better
performance. Both being cost efficient and meeting due dates are considered to be better
performing. Future research may suggest an optimal point in this trade-off. Nevertheless,
companies can decide which performance measure holds more value to them to determine what
is better performing.