An integrated material handling system for a truck assembly plant

Abstract

The paper attempts to develop a more comprehensive analytical framework for examining the relative merits of alternative material handling and inventory strategies for a truck assembly plant. This model can be used to minimise handling in delivering requirements from the warehouse to the assembly line and from the unpacking area to the warehouse. The model is also designed to look at arrangements of the storage areas to increase the efficiency of material management. This model is based on extensions of the Vehicle Routing Problem. Solutions to the model have been obtained by an implementation of a Genetic Algorithm. The historical demand data of the plant are used to simulate and analyse the different strategies to statistically determine the best material handing and inventory strategies for the truck assembly plant. As a result of implementation, the efficiency of the current system has been increased by about 30%.

Keywords:

• dispatching
• heuristics
• scheduling
• vehicle scheduling