Insights into carrier control: a simulation of a power and free conveyor through an automotive paint shop

An existing auto body paint shop uses power and free conveyors to transport auto bodies through the plant. Discrete event simulation is used to model portions of the system in order to determine whether the system can operate sufficiently when a second body style is introduced and to study the effects of making modifications to some of the conveyors. The new body style requires production lines in the work booths to be dedicated to only one of the body styles in the system. This paper describes the simulation study that was conducted to evaluate the modified system and provides some details about the methods used to model the system.