Follow-Up Sequencing Algorithm for Car Sequencing Problem 4.0

The problem of effective car sequencing in the paint shop results from the specifics of production process itself and from the structure of production line. Sequencing of cars intended to painting process is justified by economic reasons. The paper describes the new concept of this problem – Car Sequencing Problem 4.0, which takes into account the real structure of paint shop and buffers used there. The main goal of the research is to minimize the number of costly changeovers of painting guns, which results only from painting color changes. Each color change is related to the need to clean paint system, loss of paint and gun changeover, which increases production cost. The aim should be synchronization of changeovers, resulting from color changes, with periodic cleanings of painting guns, forced by technological requirements. Periodic cleanings are made to ensure good quality of painting process. In the paper the Follow-up Sequencing Algorithm is proposed to solve the considered sequencing problem. The purpose of the conducted research was to verify the influence of periodic cleaning interval on the effectiveness of the presented sequencing algorithm.