Optimisation of Milkrun Routes in Manufacturing Systems in the Automotive Industry

The in-plant supply has a great impact on the performance of manufacturing operation, because the manufacturing-related logistics operations influence the efficiency of manufacturing. There are different solutions to perform in-plant supply, in the automotive industry the milkrun and water spider solutions are widely used. Within the frame of this article the authors describe the optimization of milkrun routes in the manufacturing plant of an automotive supplier. The described methodology simplifies the problem for single- and multi-milkrun problems and the solution is demonstrated with an Excel Solver-based methodology. The optimization process and its practicability will be demonstrated through an example.