CAREL Industries S.p.A. is an Italian multinational company specializing in the design, manufacture, and marketing of advanced technological solutions for the control and regulation of air conditioning, refrigeration, heating, humidification, and adiabatic cooling systems.

The company’s history has seen the gradual development of electronic and mechanical technologies, which are now at a highly advanced stage. However, CAREL now needs to develop the assembly of a new technology (THT – Through Hole Technology) and the related production process, including electrical testing, plastic and elastomer assembly, and visual inspection, with the same level of technology/innovation.
Currently, however, the production line involves high-labour product assembly. The project therefore aims to evaluate the introduction of automation systems to streamline the assembly process and ensure a high level of customer service in terms of quality and waiting times.

The project aims to develop a production line for assembling electronic products that maximises productivity in terms of pieces per hour while minimising the difficulty and quantity of manual work. This will be achieved by exploiting innovations in the integration of different production equipment, the digitisation of information and the automation of functions. Building on the current production line prototype, which can produce the entire range of products in the specific product family in ‘One Piece Flow’ mode, the objective is to maintain this key functionality for the market while minimising production costs.

To achieve this goal, a proposed approach first involved creating a digital twin of the production line under analysis. The project then identified several interesting scenarios, carried out simulations and determined the most suitable line configuration. It also identified technology suppliers capable of meeting the requirements of the most satisfactory production scenario.

Conceptual modeling: the line was modeled from a conceptual point of view, reproducing the main production steps, the material flow, the accumulation points for semi-finished products, the rework flows, and the behavior of the workforce on the line.

A discrete event simulation model is used to conduct a comparative analysis of alternative production process scenarios in terms of configuration, balancing, sizing, automation technologies, productivity and related investment costs.

Digital twin of the production line for the creation of a virtual scenario in which to evaluate operating parameters (productivity, execution speed, takt time, one-piece-flow, and amount of manual processing) and physical parameters of various automation solutions related to Industry 4.0, such as collaborative robots and automation line solutions.

A virtual simulation model has been created that can enable the feasibility study of an investment in an assembly production line. The solution can identify the necessary configuration and related investment to achieve the desired production performance.

The creation of a digital twin model of the entire production line, which will also be used as a control system, providing the ability to monitor indicators in real time to assess the actual degree of optimization of the assembly process.

Definition of ‘what-if’ scenarios: starting from the critical points identified in the current assembly line configuration, scenarios of interest were established. Each scenario represents a potential change to the production line. These changes may involve operator positions and tasks, the automation of material movement between stations, the automation of loading and/or unloading at a station, or the automation of an entire production step. They can be analysed for potential future updates.