Optimization of Work-in-Progress Inventory of Bottleneck Process: A Case Study of Passenger Car Industry

The manufacturing of motor vehicle involves series of processes starting from welding steel sheets to form a welded body, painting and assembling sequentially to finally give it a sellable form. The nature and the intricacy involved in each processes determine the rate of production. Also, factors such as machine/equipment breakdowns result in alteration of the production rates further affecting the smooth manufacturing flow. This case study discusses how mismatches in the production rates (designed and altered) in a high-speed conveyors of various processes (starvation/blockages) could be minimized by ensuring optimized buffer storages by building WIP and minimizing risk of demand loss and optimizing inventory costs keeping the productivity also into consideration.