Bridging the gap between volume and variety oriented production systems for the automotive industry

This paper introduces a new configuration of production system, termed a Multi-Component Flexible Manpower Line, which has been designed to meet the requirements of the automotive component supply industry. The aim of this system is to process a wide variety of part types and variants in low, medium and high batches, therefore bridging the gap between volume oriented and variety oriented production systems. The introduction of this new system configuration provides novel production planning and control challenges due to the requirements for producing a range of products in varying small to very large batch sizes. This paper identifies and examines these production planning and control requirements and identifies two distinct production strategies based on volume and variety oriented production within Multi-Component Flexible Manpower Line. These production strategies have been incorporated in to a software toolkit that supports the production planning and control of such production lines.