Title: Cost models for improved vehicle assembly line performance

Authors: Arun Bhiva Rane; Vivek K. Sunnapwar; S.M. Khot

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, Fr. C. Rodrigues College of Engineering, Bandra (W), Mumbai – 400 050, India ' Lokmanya Tilak College of Engineering, Koparkhairane, Navi Mumbai – 400 709, India ' Fr. C. Rodrigues Institute of Technology, Vashi, Navi Mumbai – 400 703, India

Abstract: The viability of any manufacturing plant is a function of time and cost. Automobile manufacturing is the most competitive sector. The objective of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the development of the relationships between cost of failure and time lost due to equipment failure, cost of inventory and time lost due to shortages of material, cost of set up and time lost due to set up, cost of absenteeism and time lost due to absenteeism, and cost of material handling and time lost due to material handling. Relationships are established scientifically using regression modelling, simulation and discussions with domain experts. Results are validated in an operational vehicle assembly line. The results demonstrate that the established models follows a cubic relationship as against the hyperbolic relationship previously reported in literature. Further, an improved model strong 17 strong constraints is presented which may be useful for managers in taking cost-based decisions to improve the throughput.

Keywords: cost of inventory; cost of failure; cost of set up; throughput; vehicle assembly line.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2017.083527

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2017 Vol.12 No.2, pp.111 - 123

Received: 22 Jan 2016
Accepted: 27 Jul 2016
Published online: 09 Apr 2017 *

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