Asynchronous parallel paint systems: sequencing and control issues in JIT environment

The asynchronous parallel painting of vehicles in modern vehicle assembly facilities provides the flexibility to handle variations in mix, quality, and equipment uptimes. However, this results in an unpredictable output sequence of vehicles leading to problems in material flow, especially in plants that use just-in-time (JIT) parts delivery. A flow model is developed that captures the relationship between processing time, systems throughput, loading mix, system size, and output sequence number. The model provides several insights for design and configuration of a plant and aids in setting operating policies. It was validated by performing spectral analysis using plant data. The model is extended to handle dynamic loading and updates on controls.< >