Characterizing cost and performance of flexibility strategies in autobody manufacturing

Consumer demand is hard to predict in any industry, let alone the automotive industry. Vehicle manufacturers try to produce according to what their customers want, but if these wants change, the company is faced with lots of unsold cars and a huge changeover cost. In order to help fight the problems of demand variability, automotive manufacturers have begun the move towards plant flexibility. This includes designing vehicles comprised of similar subassemblies and the development of flexible tooling. The hope is that multiple vehicles can be produced on the same line so if demand starts to fluctuate, they can change the production levels of their styles with minimal lead time. There are a number of different approaches to flexible tooling. One approach using programmable robotic repositionable tools (PRRT) is particularly promising because it can handle a large number of styles and requires low style specific reinvestment costs. This thesis examines the PRRT technology as well as other forms of flexible tooling to understand the conditions under which these approaches make the most economic sense.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Povelaites, Jeffrey C

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Randolph E. Kirchain, Jr.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33618

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33618