Bottleneck Analysis and System Improvement with Simulation Method in a Manufacturing Facility

Articles > Article · 2021

Authors: Fatma Demircan Keskin, Ural Gökay ÇİÇEKLİ, Ege Cihangir, Gökhan Yakan

European Journal of Science and Technology, Refereed Journals of Other Institutions, International, Index Copernicus, 2021, pp 917-923

DOI: 10.31590/ejosat.1012124

Summary

<p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 252, 245); color: rgb(62, 39, 35);">Achieving&nbsp;improvements&nbsp;in&nbsp;production&nbsp;processes&nbsp;requires&nbsp;analyzing&nbsp;the&nbsp;processes&nbsp;and&nbsp;identifying&nbsp;bottlenecks&nbsp;based&nbsp;on&nbsp;actual&nbsp;process&nbsp;data.&nbsp;Simulation&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;widely&nbsp;applied&nbsp;method&nbsp;in&nbsp;analyzing&nbsp;the&nbsp;current&nbsp;state&nbsp;of&nbsp;production&nbsp;systems,&nbsp;identifying&nbsp;bottlenecks,&nbsp;developing&nbsp;alternative&nbsp;scenarios&nbsp;to&nbsp;improve&nbsp;throughput&nbsp;and&nbsp;resource&nbsp;utilization,&nbsp;and&nbsp;evaluating&nbsp;these&nbsp;scenarios’&nbsp;performances.&nbsp;In&nbsp;this&nbsp;study,&nbsp;a&nbsp;discrete&nbsp;event&nbsp;simulation&nbsp;model&nbsp;of&nbsp;a&nbsp;stator&nbsp;production&nbsp;line&nbsp;of&nbsp;a&nbsp;company&nbsp;that&nbsp;produces&nbsp;electrical&nbsp;motors&nbsp;has&nbsp;been&nbsp;developed&nbsp;using&nbsp;AnyLogic&nbsp;software.&nbsp;The&nbsp;analyzed&nbsp;production&nbsp;line&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;flow-type&nbsp;production&nbsp;line&nbsp;that&nbsp;consists&nbsp;of&nbsp;8&nbsp;machines&nbsp;and&nbsp;11&nbsp;operators.&nbsp;This&nbsp;study&nbsp;aims&nbsp;to&nbsp;detect&nbsp;the&nbsp;bottlenecks&nbsp;and&nbsp;determine&nbsp;a&nbsp;flow&nbsp;that&nbsp;maximizes&nbsp;resource&nbsp;utilization&nbsp;rates&nbsp;and&nbsp;minimizes&nbsp;inventory&nbsp;holding&nbsp;costs.&nbsp;The&nbsp;model&nbsp;parameters&nbsp;have&nbsp;been&nbsp;prepared&nbsp;with&nbsp;input&nbsp;analysis&nbsp;using&nbsp;the&nbsp;actual&nbsp;data&nbsp;from&nbsp;the&nbsp;past&nbsp;year&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;line.&nbsp;The&nbsp;current&nbsp;state&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;line&nbsp;revealed&nbsp;by&nbsp;running&nbsp;the&nbsp;simulation&nbsp;model&nbsp;has&nbsp;been&nbsp;analyzed.&nbsp;The&nbsp;findings&nbsp;have&nbsp;indicated&nbsp;that&nbsp;the&nbsp;winding&nbsp;machine&nbsp;is&nbsp;the&nbsp;bottleneck&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;production&nbsp;line.&nbsp;The&nbsp;ideal&nbsp;production&nbsp;quantity&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;winding&nbsp;machine&nbsp;has&nbsp;been&nbsp;determined&nbsp;by&nbsp;focusing&nbsp;on&nbsp;the&nbsp;productivity&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;line&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;utilization&nbsp;rates&nbsp;of&nbsp;resources&nbsp;to&nbsp;improve&nbsp;the&nbsp;system&nbsp;performance.&nbsp;Moreover,&nbsp;an&nbsp;alternative&nbsp;layout&nbsp;for&nbsp;the&nbsp;line&nbsp;has&nbsp;been&nbsp;suggested.&nbsp;Finally,&nbsp;the&nbsp;projected&nbsp;gains&nbsp;with&nbsp;this&nbsp;layout&nbsp;have&nbsp;been&nbsp;evaluated&nbsp;in&nbsp;terms&nbsp;of&nbsp;operator&nbsp;utilization&nbsp;rate.</span></p>

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