Simulation of a manufacturing assembly line based on WITNESS

Nowadays, simulation models have been used to evaluate various aspects of manufacturing systems. This paper introduces a manufacturing assembly line of starter production as a case study and the basic application of the WITNESS software. Adequate modeling but inadequate software experimentation may lead to poor decisions and can be detrimental, particularly when financial investment is involved. The objective of the study is to escalate the productivity and efficiency of the line by using precise simulation. This paper has been divided into three parts. At first, by analyzing the results of the model, the bottlenecks of the production system and the causes of the problems were identified. Second, the results of the model were identified and validated. Finally, some modifications in the model structure to improve the assembly line were set, so it would minimize the inventory of products and improve the total output

A robust optimization model for agile and build-to-order supply chain planning under uncertainties

Supply chain planning as one of the most important processes within the supply chain management concept, has a great impact on firms’ success or failure. This paper considers a supply chain planning problem of an agile manufacturing company operating in a build-to-order environment under various kinds of uncertainty. An integrated optimization approach of procurement, production and distribution costs associated with the supply chain members has been taken into account. A robust optimization scenario-based approach is used to absorb the influence of uncertain parameters and variables. The formulation is a robust optimization model with the objective of minimizing the expected total supply chain cost while maintaining customer service level. The developed multi-product, multi-period, multi-echelon robust mixed-integer linear programming model is then solved using the CPLEX optimization studio and guidance related to future areas of research is given