Constraint ratio in product assembly planning

Assembly planning considers the product, process, and production system. The existence of constraints makes the assembly planning process difficult and time consuming. The planning degree of freedom (PDOF) for designers will be increased if the number of constraints is decreased on either the product or the other sides. A higher PDOF means that companies can be more flexible in responding rapidly to the assembly of parts. In this paper, a constraint ratio (C_R) has been defined to measure the influence of the product constraints on assembly planning. Some rules have been established to simplify the evaluation procedures of the constraint ratio of the product. Examples are illustrated and explained.