Research Article Balancing the Production Line by the Simulation and Statistics Techniques: A Case Study

Abstract: A wide range of the real world problems in industries are related to misbalances of the production line and excessive Work in Process parts (WIP). Simulation is an effective method to recognize these problems with consuming least cost and time. Moreover, total system efficiency of a production line can be extremely improved by examining different solution scenario via the simulation techniques. In this research, we utilize the simulation technique founded upon the software Enterprise Dynamics (ED) for evaluating the cause of these problems and trying to find the improvement solutions in Sadid Pipe and Equipment Company (SPECO). Two parameters of diameter and thickness are important factors affecting the time of workstations. The effects of these factors on process time are evaluated by hypothesis tests. Two improvement scenarios have been presented. In the first scenario, the layout design of the factory has been improved with regard to production process and bottleneck station. In the second one, an essential improvement has been carried out by reduction in wastages. Regarding the accomplished simulations, it is concluded that it is possible to eliminate the existing bottleneck by implementing changes in the locations of production stations or reducing the waste in some stations. The improvements eventually result in balancing the production line

Desenvolvimento de software de simulação num contexto global de negócios

Mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão IndustrialCom a globalização e o aumento de competitividade as empresas viram se forçadas a encontrar novas formas de optimização e de estar constantemente à acrescentar mais valor aos seus produtos. Como resultado, existe uma mudança progressiva para uma perspectiva externa com ênfase na concepção e implementação de novas parcerias estratégicas, que são geralmente nomeadas com o título de gestão da cadeia de abastecimento. No entanto, apesar do florescimento de várias soluções informáticas neste contexto, ainda há vários obstáculos evidentes a superar. Principalmente devido à maior complexidade dos problemas gerados numa rede logística onde existem conflitos resultantes de objectivos locais versus estratégias de integração. A simulação que conta já com um vasto histórico em aplicações industriais poderá revelar-se numa importante mais-valia neste novo âmbito. Esta ferramenta é usada para efectuar análises, estudos, optimizar projectos e identificar novas oportunidades. As empresas actualmente produzem numa rede complexa na maioria das vezes estão presentes em diferentes países, com múltiplas oportunidades de mercado. Normalmente existe a necessidade de produzirem componentes sofisticados que raramente são criados num único local. Isso representa um desafio extra para a plena utilização das ferramentas de simulação. Este trabalho tenta validar a ideia de que há um potencial inexplorado no uso e desenvolvimento de software de simulação. Novas aplicações tecnológicas estão a ser formuladas que tiram partido destes novos parâmetros e dão resposta a um superior número de critérios de eficiência e de produtividade nas empresas. Em conjunto procuram dar uma resposta a estes problemas, bem como integrar plenamente e com sucesso as empresas em novas formas de negócio como a gestão cadeia de abastecimento.The increased level of competitiveness in all industrial sectors, exacerbated in the last years by the globalization of the economies. This is pushing enterprises to find new ways to optimize their processes, and in particular to pursue new forms of collaboration and partnership with their direct logistics counterparts. As a result, at a company level there is a progressive shift towards an external perspective with the design and implementation of new management strategies, which are generally named with the term of supply chain management (SCM). However, despite the flourish of several IT solutions in this context, there are still evident hurdles to overcome. Mainly due to the major complexity of the problems to be tackled in a logistics network and to the conflicts resulting from local objectives versus network strategies. Simulation has now a solid background in manufacturing applications. This tool is used to perform analyses, studies, optimize designs and also identify problems. Companies now produce in a complex environment and most of the times they are present in different countries with different market opportunities, manufacturing intricate products that are seldom created in a single location. This poses an extra challenge for the full use of simulation. This work tries to validate the idea that there is an untapped potential in simulation software. And new forms of distributes simulation techniques are growing to give an answer to these problems as well as fully integrate companies successfully into new ways of business like supply chain management

Application Of Modeling And Simulation To Reduce Costs Of Acquisition Within Triple Constraints

A key component of defense acquisition programs operating using the Integrated Defense Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Life Cycle Management System is the reliance on the triple constraints of cost, schedule, and performance. While the use of Modeling and Simulation tools and capabilities is prevalent and well established in the Research and Development, Analysis, and Training domains, acquisition programs have been reluctant to use Modeling and Simulation in any great depth due to inaccessibility of tools, Subject Matter Experts, and implications to cost and schedule. This presents a unique Simulation Management challenge which requires an in-depth understanding of the technical capabilities available within an organization, their applicability to support immediate needs, and the flexibility to utilize these capabilities within the programmatic environment to provide a value added service. The focus of this dissertation is to study the use of Modeling and Simulation in the Defense arena, and to review the applicability of Modeling and Simulation within programmatic acquisition environments which are constrained by cost, schedule, and performance. This research draws comparisons between Modeling and Simulation to other Process Improvement initiatives, such as Lean and Six Sigma, and reviews case studies involving the application of Modeling and Simulation within triple constrained environments. The development of alternate scenarios allows cost benefit analysis to be conducted for each scenario and alternate scenario, developing a case for whether or not the application of Modeling and Simulation within the triple constrained environment delivered any consequential benefit to the acquisition process. Observations are made regarding the level of Modeling and Simulation as applied within each case study, and generalized recommendations are made for the inclusion of cost benefit iv analysis methodologies for analyzing proposed Modeling and Simulation activities within acquisition programs. Limitations and shortcomings of the research activity are discussed, along with recommendations for potential future work in the Simulation Management field, both with respect to the specific case studies reviewed in this study and the general field

Engineering Data Management

To support design decisions in the product development process, companies are increasinglyrelying on computer aided simulations. However, investments in simulation technologies can nottranslate directly into benefit without implementing a system able to capture knowledge and valueout of each simulation performed. To implement the switch from traditional product development to Simulation Based Design (SBD)and product development, a system that can efficiently manage simulation data is needed. Commonsituation in industry is to store everything related to simulations in the analyst’s computer or in ashared folder. Currently only CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) departments in aerospace andautomotive OEMs are early adopters of SDM (Simulation Data Management) technology.Commercial SDM systems are developed to suits the needs of big enterprises with repetitiveprocesses and product with broadly similar geometries. The cost for deployment and maintenanceof this kind of system represents a barrier for small and mid-size companies. The larger companiesmight not benefit from a system developed and tuned for the needs of the early adopters mentionedabove. In this thesis a SDM system has been developed based on Microsoft SharePoint, a general purposedocument management and collaboration platform widely used and deployed in enterprises. Themain reason for selecting this platform is because product development is a collaborative task, andSharePoint has excellent features to support this kind of collaboration. This thesis defines a set ofconfigurations for the selected platform needed in order to help analysts to store, share and reusetheir simulation models and knowledge. To understand the requirements of SDM a multidisciplinary design process has been implemented.The design process has been developed for diesel engine conceptual design. This processrepresents a proof of concept of how SBD can be implemented concretely. The design processcontains calculation of main parameters (executed with MS Excel), CAD-geometry creation (PTCPro|Engineer), Multi-Body Simulations to get dynamic loads (MSC Adams) and Finite ElementAnalysis (DS Abaqus) for strength and vibration analysis. The results are looped back into thecalculations spreadsheet with information regarding the behavior of the key engine parts. Anoptimization algorithm is used to drive and control the loop execution in order to find an “optimal” setof design parameters.Yhtiöt käyttävät yhä enemmän tietokoneavusteista simulaatiota voidakseen paremmin tukeapäätöksentekoa tuotekehitysprosesseissa. Kuitenkin investointeja simulaatioteknologiaan ei voidasuoraan hyödyntää ilman toteutettua järjestelmää, joka pystyy keräämään tietoa jokaisestasuoritetusta simulaatiosta. Siirtymisessä perinteisestä tuotekehityksestä simulaatiopohjaiseen suunnitteluun (Simulation BasedDesign, SBD), tuotekehitys tarvitsee järjestelmän, joka pystyy tehokkaasti hallinnoimaansimulaatiotietoa. Nykyinen käytäntö teollisuudessa on tallentaa kaikki simulaation liittyvä tietoanalyytikon omalle koneelle tai jaettuun kansioon. Suurien lento- ja autoteollisuuden toimijoidensuunnitteluosastot ovat edelläkävijöitä simulaatiotiedon hallintajärjestelmän (Simulation DataManagement, SDM) käytössä. Kaupalliset SDM-järjestelmät on kehitetty vastaamaan isojenyhtiöiden toistuvia prosesseja ja tuotteita samankaltaisine geometrioineen. Tämäntyyppistenjärjestelmien käyttöönoton ja ylläpidon kustannukset ovat rajoitteena pienille ja keskisuurilleyrityksille. Isotkaan yhtiöt eivät välttämättä hyödy järjestelmästä, joka on kehitetty ja räätälöitytäyttämään yllä mainittujen aikaisten käyttöönottajien tarpeita. Tässä diplomityössä on kehitetty SDM-järjestelmä pohjautuen Microsoft SharePoint:iin, laajaltiyhtiöissä käytettyyn yleiseen tiedostonhallinta- ja yhteistoiminta-alustaan. Pääasiallinen syy tämänalustan valintaan on se, että tuotekehitys on yhteistoimintaa ja SharePointissa on ominaisuuksia,jotka tukevat erinomaisesti tätä. Tämä diplomityö määrittelee joukon määreitä tähän alustaanauttaakseen analyytikkoa tallentamaan, jälleenkäyttämään ja jakamaan simulaatiomalleja ja-tietämystä. SDM-järjestelmän vaatimuksien tutkimiseksi toteutettiin monitieteellinen suunnitteluprosessi.Suunnitteluprosessi on kehitetty dieselmoottorin konseptuaaliseen suunnitteluun. Tämä prosessiedustaa, miten SDB voidaan konkreettisesti toteuttaa. Suunnitteluprosessi sisältää päämuuttujienlaskennan (toteutettu MS Excelissä), CAD (Computer Aided Design)-geometrian luomisen (PTCPro|Engineer), monikappalesimuloinnin dynaamisten kuormien laskemiseksi (MSC Adams) jalujuus- ja värähtelyanalyysit (DS Abaqus). Lujuus- ja värähtelyanalyysin tulokset liittyen moottorinpääosien käyttäytymiseen on takaisinkytketty laskentaan. Optimointialgoritmia on käytettyjohtamaan ja kontrolloimaan suunnitteluprosessia löytääkseen ”optimaaliset” arvotsuunnittelumuuttujille

Embedding simulation technologies in business processes.

The need to fully integrate simulation as a daily tool has been subject to much attention over the past few years, however little research has previously contributed to this area. This study examines the development of systematic guidelines to enable companies to strategically implement simulation as a mainstream technology within their businesses.An extensive review of the literature was conducted in order to investigate the reasons behind the limited use of simulation and to establish the failure and success factors of companies implementing new technology. The importance of knowledge management in developing simulation technology was also investigated. Additionally, a questionnaire survey was conducted to examine the ways in which simulation technology has been used and developed within different companies. Furthermore, a case study was conducted in order to understand and investigate the processes of implementing simulation in a real organisation.Subsequently, an easy-to-follow framework for enabling companies to embed simulation technologies into their business processes was developed. This framework comprises five key stages, namely: Foundation, Introduction, Infrastructure,Deployment and Embedding. Each stage provides a best practice approach to guide companies in achieving every objective of that stage. Adjustments to the framework were made in the validation and reliability section to reduce any limitations.In creating a relevant and workable framework, this study has contributed significantly to the research gap established within existing simulation integration studies

The definition of simulation and its role within an aerospace company

Simulation software has reached a technological level that provides high flexibility and integration capabilities necessary for product design, development and manufacturing efficiency. It appears in the aerospace industry, and the potential of simulation has not been fully recognised, although it is now becoming a matter of interest through the documented benefits it has provided. This paper discusses the issues of selection and integration that can be achieved with simulation within an aerospace company. This also discusses the practical difficulties of data transfer and management that would be encountered in the development of an integrated simulation environment. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved