Abstract
This paper proposes a sequencing domain shell for a mixed-model assembly line and also discusses the application result from a practical production of a bumper coating line. The domain shell, SELES (SELEction tool for production instruction Scheduling), was developed to construct sequencing expert systems individually and provided the functions to select an appropriate product from plural candidates with respect to constraints such as line situation and line balancing. The characteristics of SELES are as follows : (1) the meta-inference mechanism and knowledge representation enable to straightforwardly describe flows of sequencing and maintain easily knowledge bases, (2) the selection mechanism using filtering primitives is understandable and widely applicable for various kinds of production lines. We applied SELES to a sequencing system for a practical bumper coating line. As a result, we could reduce a mount of labors dramatically and decrease a stock space of products in some production processes.
