Masters Abstracts (2000)

SAMPATHKUMAR, VAIDEESWARAN
(August 2000), Manufacturing Controller, General Motors, Edison, NJ

Email: vaidee.sampathkumar@eds.com

Throughput Improvement in the CAB Shop of an existing Automotive Assembly Plant Using Computer Simulation as a Tool

The automotive industry all over the world is facing challenges due to market globalization, the emergence of new markets in developing countries, and the requirements imposed by customer demands for more comfort and security at less cost. The vital objective of the automotive industry is to reduce costs. Organizations, which can combine high productivity, high quality, and high product flexibility, have the competitive advantage. To decrease costs, automobile assembly facilities are focussing on becoming lean. Increasing throughput is essential to decrease costs, and to deliver products at the right time. A typical automotive assembly facility is a high volume and highly automated manufacturing environment with production being based on continuous flow manufacturing. Transforming to a lean philosophy requires a structured approach. The wastes in the organization have to be identified and eliminated. The throughput of the cab shop of an automotive assembly plant is governed by a number of dependent factors. In a cab shop, the process of identifying wastes and allocating resources in the form of time and money requires analysis and planning. Prioritizing of tasks to eliminate wastes is based upon the throughput improvement that could be achieved. A comprehensive study of the cab shop of an automotive assembly plant was undertaken to find the real-time wastes that impede throughput. The impact of such wastes needs to be identified by collecting and analyzing data using computer simulation. The different tasks that were assigned to improve throughput were also studied. These tasks were classified based on the complexity of the task and the investment required. Computer simulation was used to evaluate the suggestions and predict the increase in throughput that could be achieved if the task was carried out. Information is the key to improving throughput in a manufacturing system. By integrating systems concepts into manufacturing information systems, it will be possible to include all parameters that define the system. An intuitive suggestion needs to be supported by data and analysis. Computer simulation can be used as a tool to identify bottlenecks, to understand the root cause, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the suggestions made to eliminate the root cause.