Production Line Balancing in a Mixed-Model Production System: A Case Study

This paper looks at the balancing of a coating line in an automotive manufacturing company. A well-balanced production line is standardized one, with jobs performed in the same sequence, evenly distributed workload and a constant takt time. The project discussed in this paper consisted of the development of a balanced work standard in a mixed model production system, with additional measures taken to boost the manufacturing capacity. The key challenge in balancing a mixed-model production system are differences in time and labor consumption across operations. The focus should be put on the elimination of any wastes and errors observed during the balancing tests through continuous monitoring and root cause analysis. Optimal distribution of workload can be efficient only if the company develops solutions to eliminate and prevent issues, causing abnormalities. Owing to the measures implemented in the company under analysis, a constant takt time has been introduced, and the value-added in the process boosted.