A method for determining cost-efficient inspection strategies in multistage production systems

摘要

This is a summary of the author’s PhD thesis. The thesis, written in English, was defended on 6 March 2006, and was supervised by Rik Van Landeghem and Claude Van Mechelen. A copy is available from the author upon request. This PhD thesis focuses on (cost-)efficient quality control for multistage production processes, a major issue to manufacturers. Subjecting a larger product fraction to inspection, or tightening the acceptance limits, will normally lead to a higher product quality, but will also result in higher costs of inspection, scrap and rework. Quantifying this trade-off and thus establishing ways of finding an economic optimum is at the heart of this research. Thereto, a metaheuristic solution approach, consisting of an evolutionary algorithm combined with simulation, is presented and validated.