International Journal of Production Research

Lesert A., Alpan G., Frein Y., Noiré S.

In this paper we describe a phenomenon observed in the automotive industry and which makes difficult the creation of a feasible sequence of vehicles. This phenomenon, which we call the "interactions of constraints", has already been observed at the major automobile constructors but no measure of the phenomenon has been established. In the absence of such a measure, the tendency was to add up extra capacity on the assembly line to overcome the difficulties due to the interactions of constraints. Here, we propose a method to estimate the level of difficulty to create a sequence due to this phenomenon. This method is coupled with an efficient decision support tool which can be used to better dimension the assembly line.

Cet article a été rejeté.