Optimal Scheduling to Achieve Energy Reduction in Automotive Paint Shops

The largest amount of energy consumption in an automotive assembly plant is in paint shop. Optimizing the energy usage in paint shops will result in maximum energy savings. Instead of inventing new chemicals, new painting processes or new control systems in painting booths and ovens, our research focuses on developing an optimal scheduling procedure of vehicle sequence to achieve the goal of energy reduction. Specifically, by selecting appropriate batch and sequence policies, the paint quality can be improved and repaints can be reduced so that less material and energy will be consumed. It is shown that such scheduling and control method can lead to significant energy savings with no extra investment, nor changes to existing painting processes.