Global competition is growing for companies everywhere and the demand for new and improved products are rising for each day that passes. The globalization brings new opportunities as well as new challenges since companies need to stay up to date and implement new technologies to stay competitive. Not only do customers want up to date products, they also want high quality, low price and individualized products, customized for their needs. This puts high demand on manufacturing companies to adapt their businesses, increase product diversity and to being able to introduce new variations and new products quickly.  Since the drastic evolution of technology has increased the competitiveness of industrial companies, and the mass customization demands have increased, the necessity to investigate potential system alternatives towards improving production processes, with the help from the new technology, is required. One way of doing this is to revaluate one's assembly layouts since the layout design decision is highly connected to the product portfolio and the production volumes. The specific objective of this thesis is to broaden the case company’s, ABB, knowledge on ways their assembly of large robots can be improved with the focus on potential future assembly solutions. The overall aim of this thesis work is to identify state-of-the-art possible layout design alternatives, evaluate their performances and finding a method of choosing the final layout approach. This is answered by research questions connected to plant layout selection methodology, plant layout options and finally recommendations for the case company. The methodology chosen for deciding the recommended layout is the fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process which is a multi-criteria decision-making tool suitable for decision problems with a hierarchical structure, having main attributes and sub attributes connected to each main attribute. Twenty-four attributes were created and ten layouts based on company observations and a literature study. The layout with the highest score was a layout based on a modernized version of the common fixed position layout. The overall recommendation for the case company was to focus on having a layout in the future with focus on a high technology level as well as high flexibility, for also receiving high performance.

The thesis is concerning rotator assembly at Indexator. A need to increase production has been seen and it can be done by implementing an optimized assembly process. In addition to the assembly process a new design on workstations and new test equipment is needed.The study resulted into three assembly process proposals. The processes were balanced, layouts were produced and Plant simulation was utilized to produce simulation models. Each proposal were analyzed based on cost, performance, ease of implementation, flexibility and worker condition. This resulted in a stationary assembly process being most promising and a 3D simulation model was produced for visualization and better understanding. The stationary assembly process has a capacity for 90 rotators per day, while reducing the amount of workers by one.The layout of the workstations was done based on the assembly process layout and further developed to make the work cell lean and ergonomic. It resulted in three workstations to perform the assembly. The test bench was developed by creating target specifications, establish a test procedure and decide components for the test bench layout. The finished test bench can measure dynamic torque, count particles to ensure cleanliness and is able to run the test unattended. / Examensarbetet handlar om montering av rotatorer på Indexator. Målet är att ta fram en optimerad monteringsprocess som kan implementeras i Indexators fabrik utan svårigheter. Den nya monteringsprocessen kommer kräva en ny design på arbetsstationerna och nya testbänkar.Fyra koncept på monteringsprocessen togs fram, baserat på monteringens behov och målsättning. Efter utvärdering så modifierades de fyra koncepten till tre förslag på monteringsprocesser. Processerna balancerades, layouter utvecklades och simuleringsmodeller producerades för varje process. Varje förslag analyserades baserat på kostnad, prestanda, implementation,flexibilitet och arbetar-förhållande. Resultatet blev en stationär monteringsprocess och en 3Dsimulering gjordes för visualisering och förståelse. Den stationära monteringsprocessen har en kapacitet på 90 rotatorer per dag och reducerar behovet av montörer.Layouten för monteringsstationerna baseras på processens layout och har modifierats för ergonomiska aspekter. Inom monteringsstationerna så utvecklades layouten för att minimera antalet onödiga rörelser för montören. Testriggens design utvecklades genom att analysera de behov som fanns, skapa en kravspecifikation samt utvärdera och besluta om testprocedur, upplägg för testrigg och dess ingående komponenter. Testriggen uppfyller målsättningen som är att kunna mäta dynamiskt vridmoment, räkna partiklar för att säkerställa renhet i rotatorn och kunna utföra testningen självgående för att frigöra montören under testprogrammet.