A Rule Based System Design for Planning Assembly Line Part Feeding Processes

Part feeding processes have a significant impact on increasing efficiency of production systems and preventing non value added jobs. Part feeding processes refer to delivery methods of parts to use points. It is a critical issue to feed parts to the line at the desired time and at the lowest cost with the appropriate feed process in the automotive assembly lines, which is a typical example of a mixed model assembly line. The purpose of this study is to design of a system for the planning of part feeding processes in automotive assembly lines and thereby eliminating non value added jobs by determining the proper line feeding process for the parts. A rule based system is developed to solve the problem. The developed system processes the rules defined for part feeding processes with cost consideration and produces the output of selected part feeding process by using part and supplier specifications etc. inputs. Besides, the developed system can be integrated and applied to different sectors of mixed model assembly lines with similar line and production planning structure