A research progress of painting workshops process planning and related equipment in modern automobile industry was briefly described. The application of technologies in automated manufacturing,logistics transportation and intelligent control in the coating field has significantly improved the flexibility of the coating process. Through investigation and research on new workshop process planning methods and the application of new equipment, a modular process layout suitable for low-capacity, multi-product painting workshops was designed. The industrial island-style workshop layout will be regarded as the main form of process planning to meet the needs of highly flexible production.