Minimizing total setup cost for a metal casting company

The optimizing sequence of production for a set of customer orders - in order to minimize machine set-up time and costs - is one of the typical problems found in many manufacturing systems. In this paper, we develop a simulation model to capture a practical system of a metal casting company in Queensland, Australia, and optimize the production sequence for a set of customer orders. The method addressed in the paper can be applied to other optimization problems in manufacturing industry

Minimizing total setup cost for a metal casting company

Proceedings - Winter Simulation Conference21189-1194WSCP

Concept Development to Control Non-value Added Logistical Costs in a Primary Aluminium Casthouse by Interfacing Linear Optimization and Simulation

After the financial crisis in 2008, demand reduction especially from the automotive in-dustry and changes in CO2 tax regulations which increased the energy prices the alu-minium industry forced to review and reduce its operational expenditure. High energy consumption in the production of primary aluminium dedicates most of the efforts on technological development onto the electrolysis unit. However, other units of a smelter also have the potential to improve their operational efficiency. In this thesis, the focus is on the casthouse unit of the smelter. The aim of this research is to quantify and reduce the non-value added logistical costs in the aluminium industry’s supply chain. This re-search attempts to simulate the internal supply chain of a primary aluminium casthouse and identify the wastes by implementing a lean thinking approach. After highlighting the possible improvements, optimization models attempt to reduce these wastes which create non-value added costs to the system. This concept is further developed by inter-facing the simulation model with the optimization model to validate the improvements. The success of the concept is tested by measuring the reduction in redundant logistical costs of a case study founded on the real casthouse specifications. Scenarios are defined to analyze the casthouse supply chain under different perspectives. The potential gain of the new concept is verified by applying it to these scenarios. In conclusion, the results analysis of the scenarios indicates the success of the main objective of this research; to develop a new concept that controls the non-value added logistical costs in the primary aluminium casthouse supply chain