Abstract
To ensure competitiveness in today's automotive market, process and material
planning should be performed concurrently with other engineering activities during new
automotive development. In this paper, new business workflows and a support system for
process and material planning of automotive general assembly are proposed and presented. It
is suggested that several engineers execute planning together, since process and material
planning for an entire general assembly shop is an extremely complex job. Therefore,
planners should discuss results with one another through continuous on-line communication
and cooperation. Process and material planning use, using a digital model, with computers,
databases and the Internet, reduces manufacturing preparation time and costs through
concurrent collaborative engineering. In this research, web-based processing and a material
planning system for general assembly shops using a digital virtual factory is implemented and
proven. Using this system, savings in time and cost of assembly process and material planning
are made possible, and the reliability of planning results is greatly improved.
Keywords - assembly process and material planning, concurrent and collaborative process
and material planning, digital virtual factory, web