KANBAN VS. PROACTIVE CONTROL OF MATERIAL SUPPLY AT MIXED-MODEL ASSEMBLY LINES IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

This paper deals with the problem of in-house part supply from a central storage area to the various stations of a mixed-model assembly line in the automotive industry. Inspired by the Japanese just-in-time principle which aims at synchronizing the supply of parts with their demand, many automotive plants introduced Kanban-like systems to control the material flow. In a practical project we experienced that Kanban-based material flow control appeared to be less efficient compared to individually scheduled tours. To overcome the weaknesses of Kanban systems, we developed an alternative heuristic approach for feeding parts to the assembly line. Our experimental results reveal that this proactive approach outperforms the Kanban-controlled system in terms of the number of shuttle drivers and part shortage incidents.