IoT-Integrated Simulation-Based Assembly Line Balancing for Smart Manufacturing

This paper extends a validated simulation-based assembly line balancing study by adding a simulated Internet of Things (IoT) sensor feed to a FlexSim model. A Python generator produces timestamped cycle-time readings for each of 18 workstations to represent sensor telemetry. The readings are exported to Excel and imported into a FlexSim Global Table, which replaces the historical cycle-time distributions of the baseline as the source of processing times. The line structure and the daily requirement of 200 units are kept so that results remain comparable with the baseline and with three earlier FlexSim models. The paper reports (i) the verified baseline and Models 1–3, (ii) the sensor-feed pipeline with a justification of its design parameters, and (iii) a test of the feed over 30 independent replications, which shows that its statistics and the identity of the bottleneck (WS3) do not change from one replication to the next. A Python re-implementation of the line, which reproduces the FlexSim output of Models 1–3 (164, 189 and 189 units), is then driven by the feed over 30 replications. Sensor-driven inputs change output by less than one unit and mean staytime by about 0.1%, and WS3 remains the bottleneck in every replication. The FlexSim run driven by the sensor feed is still in progress and is reported as pending.