Method for Configuring Product and Order Flexible Assembly Lines in the Automotive Industry

Abstract In the last few years the number of offered vehicle derivatives in the multi variant serial production of the automotive industry increased. The existing assembly lines have to manage many ramp ups. It is necessary to increase the product and order flexibility of existing assembly lines to manage these challenges. This paper details the preconditions to learn, which assembly configurations fulfill the requirements of existing, further and future products. Therefore the developed method uses degrees of freedom in the assembly order.