Improving In-Plant Logistics Flow by Physical and Digital Pathways

Abstract The automotive industry is constantly using continuous improvement to leverage its growth and sustainability. The improvement of the intralogistics of component companies for the automotive industry is based on the same principles. The Milk-Run System (MRS) allows the inbound transportation of the raw materials containers to the production lines, as well as the return of finished product containers. Thus, it is important to improve the performance of existing vehicle routing system, according to customer demand orders and the assignment of the production line. The present study identified and examined the existing constraints and proposes the improvements to increase the performance of the existing inbound milk-run system. The system capacity and the routing have been redefined as well as the information need to an efficient management system. Since the production is not standardized, the software was developed to assist the management of the milk-run system. Its implementation showed that with one vehicle and four wagons all the production lines are properly assisted. The contributions of this study were the reduction in 15% of the milk-run lap time, the decrease of the number of milk-run laps, allowing the increase of the number of lines assisted by this intralogistics system, permitting the assignment of new tasks to the MRS operator during the idle time. Moreover, unnecessary laps, unwanted stops and exchange of packaging were eliminated.