Investigation of Alternatives for Up-fitting Lead Time Reduction for Vehicle Assembly.

摘要

In this research, an investigation of the lead time reduction and cost control for vehicles with special parts ordered by the customers was performed. The production flow is not continuous for the installation of these parts. There is always time wasted waiting for the units. The aim of this research was to discover revised procedures to reduce lead time and costs. Value stream mapping was the tool to analyze the process. Flexsim(TM) was the software used to simulate different production cases. The results from the simulations indicate that under the current production volume, moving the program back to the plant is the best option since it will reduce the waiting time between the plant and installation facility. Furthermore, it can reduce the overall manufacturing lead times and improve cost effectiveness. If the production volume increases, space, equipment and management limitations may require plants to use alternative production models and these limits should be studied in future research.