Case Study: ASRS for Welded and Painted Vehicle Body Storage in the Automobile Industry
Overview
A leading automotive OEM producing passenger and commercial vehicles, with integrated body-in-white (BIW), paint shop, and final assembly lines. The plant operates under a Just-In-Time (JIT)philosophy and handles high model-variant complexity.
Problem Statement
- Damage to painted/welded bodies due to manual handling.
- No efficient method to sort by variant, batch, or color.
- Inability to ensure FIFO and minimize vehicle aging.
- Delay in responding to MES JIT calls.
- No real-time visibility for shopfloor teams.
Objectives
- Automate storage/retrieval of painted and welded vehicle bodies.
- Enable variant-based sorting and batch processing.
- Integrate tightly with MES for JIT production sequencing.
- Enforce FIFO and prevent body aging.
- Provide live ASRS status via Andon displays across the plant
- Ensure complete system operation without any manual intervention
Solution: Fully Automated ASRS + MES + Andon Integration
Key Software & Automation Features
WCS + WMS (Warehouse Software)
MES Integration (JIT-Driven)
Intelligent Variant Sorting
Andon Displays in Common Areas (Live ASRS Status)
FIFO + Vehicle Aging Alerts:
RFID/Barcode-Based Vehicle Tracking:
WCS + WMS (Warehouse Software)
- Automatically assigns storage locations.
- Manages retrieval based on variant and batch.
- Communicates directly with MES (no manual coordination).
MES Integration (JIT-Driven)
- MES automatically triggers vehicle body calls based on real-time demand.
- ASRS retrieves and delivers requested bodies directly to buffer zones.
- No human interaction required.
Intelligent Variant Sorting
Automatically groups and sorts vehicle bodies by:
- Variant type
- Color
- Production batch
Andon Displays in Common Areas (Live ASRS Status)
Andon screens installed in:
- Control room
- Assembly feeder zones
- Production supervisor cabins
- Maintenance corridors
- Live storage occupancy
- Active JIT requests and processing status
- Retrieval queue
- Fault/error states (e.g., blocked slot, crane failure)
FIFO + Vehicle Aging Alerts:
- System enforces first-in-first-out automatically
- Flags aging units for priority retrieval to avoid line bottlenecks.
RFID/Barcode-Based Vehicle Tracking:
- Each vehicle body tracked with a unique tag.
- Location and age monitored continuously in the system.
Workflow Summary (Fully Automated)
Inbound:
- Vehicle body scanned once → tag registered.
- ASRS assigns location → body is stored automatically.
- MES updated with status
Storage:
- Variant/color/batch data used for dynamic slotting.
- System keeps similar variants together for fast retrieval.
Outbound (To Assembly):
- MES sends JIT pull signal
- ASRS selects appropriate body → routes to output buffer
- HMI & Andon show body status and destination line.
Live Monitoring
Andon displays show:
- Vehicle body count per variant
- Oldest body (age flag)
- Retrieval in progress
- Line feed success/failure
Results Summary
Metric
Manual Handling
Sorting Accuracy
Retrieval Time
MES-JIT Fulfillment Accuracy
Vehicle Body Aging
Andon Visibility
Manpower for Handling
Paint/Body Damage
Sorting Accuracy
Retrieval Time
MES-JIT Fulfillment Accuracy
Vehicle Body Aging
Andon Visibility
Manpower for Handling
Paint/Body Damage
Before ASRS
5–6 touchpoints
Low
20–30 minutes
80–85%
Untracked
None
25+
Frequent
Low
20–30 minutes
80–85%
Untracked
None
25+
Frequent
After ASRS (Automated + Andon)
0
99.9% (variant-based)
<3 minutes
>99.9%
Monitored & FIFO Enforced
Live across shopfloor
<5 (monitoring only)
Near-zero
99.9% (variant-based)
<3 minutes
>99.9%
Monitored & FIFO Enforced
Live across shopfloor
<5 (monitoring only)
Near-zero
Benefits:
- Zero operator involvement after vehicle body entry.
- Fast, accurate sorting and JIT-driven delivery to assembly
- Andon displays enable real-time visibility and reduce downtime.
- Full traceability of every vehicle body (variant, time, batch).
- Reduced manual errors, safer environment, optimized space.
Lessons Learned:
- MES-ASRS interface must support real-time failover logic.
- Andon data refresh rates must be optimized for floor usability.
- Supervisors benefit from Andon color coding (e.g., green = idle, blue = fetching, red = fault).
