IEM MDP: Colloquium, Hidde Vink

Title

Design of a scheduling method for cost reduction of a paint shop in the automotive supply industry

Panel

1st supervisor: Dr. A.J. (Albert) Bosch

2nd supervisor: Dr. A. (Alexander) Hübl

Company supervisor: R.J.J. (Ruben) Tijhuis MSc. (Scania Production Meppel B.V.)

Abstract

In paint shops of the automotive supply industry, large amounts of synthetic material parts in many different colours required are painted. Since this is a cost-intensive and time-consuming production process required to achieve a wide product variety, paint shops in the automotive supply industry utilise a high level of automation including conveyor belt systems and multiple robots. Many studies identified that a significant part of production waste costs are related to frequent cleaning set-ups of these robots. During each cleaning set-up, the robot is cleaned with a detergent and leads to residues of the previously used colour, which must be disposed of at significant costs. To reduce costs, the number of colour changes can be reduced by sequencing of orders into colour blocks. However, simultaneously, deviating from the requested sequence of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) incurs undesirable additional costs. This introduces the need for production scheduling that incorporates both types of costs. Currently, no scheduling method exists that considers minimization of cleaning set-up costs and costs due to deviations from the requested OEM sequence that is applicable to real-world manufacturing systems. In this thesis, a scheduling method based on an algorithm with dispatching rules is designed to reduce total costs resulting from both types of costs. To test the applicability of the scheduling method in the real world, the scheduling method is applied to a real-world problem of a company in the automotive supply industry, called Scania Production Meppel (SPM). Additionally, a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model of the manufacturing system of SPM is designed and validated to evaluate the performance of the scheduling method by simulation of multiple scenarios using historical data. The results show that on average production costs can be significantly reduced by 20.8% compared to the current scheduling method. While the new scheduling method has great potential for future application, it requires improvements regarding workload balancing to be applicable to the manufacturing system of SPM and similar real-world paint shops in the automotive supply industry.

Additional Info.

Please confirm your participation to Betsy van Rooij-Oldenboom (j.e.van.rooijoldenboom@rug.nl). She will put your name on the attendance list (RED BOOK) after the colloquium is finished.