Automotive manufacturing is a complex task involving several steps of machining and assembly. Typically, larger components of an automobile such as the body, engine etc. are assembled over multiple systems. These large assemblies are transferred from one assembly system to another using conveyors.The conveyor/transfer system serves as a buffer and also serves to sort and re-sequence the components in a form that is required by the downstream operation. This requires the transfer system to be able to 'look ahead' at the requirements for the downstream operation and resequence the assemblies, if necessary. The sortation and re-sequencing part of the conveyor system is called a selectivity bank. The capacity requirement calculation and configuration design of these selectivity banks is difficult due to the randomness in the operation of, and the differences in schedules between the two systems it is connecting. Simulation is a valuable tool that is increasingly being used in the design, testing and upgrading of these systems. This paper presents the typical design issues of such selectivity banks, that are addressed using simulation. A case study is presented to elucidate the concepts and applications. The paper concentrates on automotive manufacturing systems but the concepts presented here are applicable to sortation systems used in several industries.

We describe the application of simulation analysis to a complex operational problem involving scheduling, sequencing, and material-handling decisions. The manufacturing process under study required close attention to correct mix and sequencing of raw materials, reduction of material-handling costs, high utilization of a resource having significant purchase and operational expense, and a steady, low-variance throughput.output data necessary to meet the objectives. Each of these steps is a prerequisite for success of simulation analyses (Banks and Gibson 1996). We next present our results and conclusions, and indicate expectations for fiuther analyses.

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