Abstract
In the automotive industry, a Body in White (BIW) refers to the first step, the basic structure, in the production of a vehicle. Once a BIW production line has been built, the (maximum) capacity is fixed and throughput is therefore limited by the equipment specified during the design phase. The main metric used to inform the production line design is the Net Ideal Cycle Time (NICT). Unfortunately, the state of practice to estimate the NICT is a basic heuristic that does not account for production variation. In this paper, we challenge the current estimation approach by proposing an alternative that assumes actual production to follow a Weibull distribution. The proposed model is derived and estimated from empirical data. The results suggest that BIW production lines have traditionally been designed with too low a capacity, resulting in planned throughput rarely being achieved. On the other hand, increasing the design capacity implies a higher initial investment. In this paper it is demonstrated that the higher investment required is offset by reduced losses, resulting in more reliable planning and returns.
Highlights
The BIW production line in the automotive manufacturing industry is responsible for creating the basic structure of a vehicle
The analyses suggest that actual production follows a Weibull distribution, where the shape parameter can be estimated from historical data, and the scale parameter is used to estimate the Net Ideal Cycle Time (NICT)
Where Mean Throughput (MT) is expressed in uph, Total Daily Volume (TDV) is the total daily number of units that was produced and Daily Hours Worked (DHW) is the total number of hours worked per specific day
Summary
The BIW production line in the automotive manufacturing industry is responsible for creating the basic structure of a vehicle. The assembly stations along the production line are typically heavily equipped with robotic welders and automated material handling technology. Designing the BIW line is generally a complex and challenging task. The equipment selection is subject to the required throughput and, once installed, essentially becomes the ceiling for production. Production line designers use the NICT as the reference to specify equipment capacity, which, in turn, is informed by two important design parameters. The first is Takt Time (TT), the average time between the start of production of one unit and the start of production for the subsequent unit and, secondly, the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE)
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