A hierarchical method to improve the productivity of a multi-head surface mounting machine

This paper considers the problem of minimizing the assembly time of multi-head surface mounting machines. The problem is decomposed into a hierarchy of related subproblems. Since all subproblems in the hierarchy are known to be of a combinatorial nature and computationally intractable, we develop heuristics which are based on dynamic programming and the nearest neighbour travelling salesman problem technique. We implement the method as a computer program and perform computer simulations. The results are compared to a heuristic that is currently in use.