Research on influence factors and levels of automobile manufacturing system complexity

Correctly identifying and determining complexity factors and influence levels remains a key issue for carrying out effective control and decision-makings in automobile manufacturing systems and is a pre-condition for bringing the advantages of advanced manufacturing systems into full play. This paper preliminarily identifies eight factors influencing complexity based on considering the variety induced by high integration level of automobile manufacturing systems. Then seen the factors identified as control variables simulation experiments are designed and virtual engine production line models are developed to observe system performance under different variable value. Using simulation output data ANOVA method is applied to test whether or not the factors identified have significant influences on complexity and the influence level. The final analysis results show that except for processing centre quality the others have significant influences on complexity and the greatest one is product structure breadth.