Assembly lines of the future: A literature review of research articles from 2000-2014

Assembly line manufacturing is being extensively used in several integral manufacturing industries from handicraft to high tech, mostly where raw materials are transformed into finished goods requiring significant capital investment, often using low-skilled workers, high volume and low variable costs. Whilst the variety of products generated through modern assembly lines itself makes it a significant manufacturing process, the resulting increase in the speed of delivery and quality intensely impact the lives of nearly seven billion people around the globe. The assembly line manufacturing processes have being evolving ever since the pioneering efforts of Henry Ford and Ransom Olds and it is critical to know the implications that emerging forms of inter- and intra- organizational environments hold on the future of assembly lines. Thus, this article attempts to capture a glimpse of future assembly lines by analyzing the literature published from 2000 to 2014. It outlines major lines of research on non-traditional assembly line manufacturing processes, classifies the research work on several comparison grounds, discusses underlying research methodologies, highlights the specific techniques/technologies introduced and further presents the delimitations of such research conducted. Copyright, American Society for Engineering Management, 2014.