The proposed project deals with the design and choice of efficient materials preparation processes in the automotive industry. The application of materials supply principles such as kitting and sequencing is growing, which in turn increases the amount of materials preparation processes, for the purpose of the manufacturers to be able to manage the increasing variety of product models and components. However, these processes are associated with high labour cost, prevalent quality problems, and ergonomic risks in manual materials handling and the proper choice between the large amounts of principally different system designs is not guided by systematic models. Knowledge is lacking in choice of what is the appropriate materials preparation process design in different situations. Further, the quality of the outcome from the processes is difficult to measure, for which the project intends to develop methods.
The research is carried out by the research centre Northern LEAD.
Lennart Lundgren, Scania
Chalmers University of Technology
Volvo Car Corporation
AB Volvo
Scania CV
DB Schenker Logistics
IAC
VBG
Bulten