Balance the line with variants

Procedure

1. Right-click a plant BOP and choose Open With→Line Balancing Chart.The first time you open the view, Teamcenter checks the current collaboration context for a production program and asks you whether to apply it to the view.

Teamcenter opens the Line Balancing Chart view in Average mode.

1

Header

Displays the active production program. In the figure, the line balancing chart is in Average mode with no variant filter applied.

2

Overlay

Shows the maximum and minimum work content of all the product variants in the production program. The station bar shows the weighted average times of all the operations, but the overlay indicates the range of work content for these operations. Using this, you can quickly determine if there are larger time deviations from the average. Hide the overlay by clicking Show Overlay .

3

Operations

Displays operations found in all the product variants. The darker green operations have a probability of 1 (they are found in every product variant). The lighter green operations have a probability of less than 1 (they are not contained in every product variant). Their probability is the sum of their individual probabilities of being included in each of the product variants.

Any problem stations that exceed capacity are displayed in red.

2. With the overlay turned on, place the mouse over the blue bar to view the maximum and minimum product variant times.

3. Place the mouse over an operation to view the tooltip.

This displays:

The relevant product variants from the active production program.

The probability of each relevant product variant.

The sum of the probability of all relevant product variants that amounts to the probability of the operation.

4. Click Change Variant Filter and select a different variant to change the product variant displayed in the chart.

Changing between variant filters in the line balancing chart does not apply the variants to the plant BOP structure. This allows you to analyze different variant configurations with no affect on structures.

The blue horizontal lines represent the averages.

5. Drag the problematic operations to a station with available capacity.

If you move an operation from one station to another with a variant filter applied, the operation is also moved in the structure and, therefore, in all other variants of the structure.

6. Switch between variant filters and average mode to determine whether the line is properly balanced.

Caution While modifying the variant configuration in the Line Balancing Chart view, do not change the configuration in the structure views. If you do this, the information in the Line Balancing Chart view is no longer accurate and you must reapply the production program to the line balancing chart so the structure and chart are synchronized.

7. To view an applied variant in the plant BOP structure, apply the variant to the structure by clicking Apply Variant Filter .

This updates the structures views with the variant configuration set in the Line Balancing Chart view. Clicking Apply Variant Filter applies a variant to the structure from which the variant rule originated. For example, if you create the variant rule within the process structure, when you apply the variant filter, it is applied to the process structure. Note When you apply a variant from the line balancing chart, whether the variants that are configured out are displayed in the structure depends on the state of the Show Unconfigured buttons.

Tip If you receive a warning that some of the variants may not be visible because of currently applied product variants, click to reapply the production program.

Related Topics

• Displaying and hiding structures using the Show Unconfigured buttons