A real-time sequence control system for the level production of the automobile assembly line

In the automobile industry, mixed-model assembly lines are used to produce many different vehicles without carrying large inventory. For achieving high productivity, it is required to keep a constant rate of usage of parts used by the assembly line. We have developed a new dynamic sequencing method for level production of assembly line and built up an automated sequence-control system which had been operated manually. In this paper, we present i) the nature of sequence control problems, ii) a dynamic sequence control algorithm, and iii) the experience of automating a buffer control system.