Manufacturing Management and Decision Support using Simulation-based Multi-Objective Optimisation

A majority of the established automotive manufacturers are under severe competitive pressure and their long term economic sustainability is threatened. In particular the transformation towards more CO2-efficient energy sources is a huge financial burden for an already investment capital intensive industry. In addition existing operations urgently need rapid improvement and even more critical is the development of highly productive, efficient and sustainable manufacturing solutions for new and updated products. Simultaneously, a number of severe drawbacks with current improvement methods for industrial production systems have been identified. In summary, variation is not considered sufficient with current analysis methods, tools used are insufficient for revealing enough knowledge to support decisions, procedures for finding optimal solutions are not considered, and information about bottlenecks is often required, but no accurate methods for the identification of bottlenecks are used in practice, because they do not normally generate any improvement actions. Current methods follow a trial-and-error pattern instead of a proactive approach. Decisions are often made directly on the basis of raw static historical data without an awareness of optimal alternatives and their effects. These issues could most likely lead to inadequate production solutions, low effectiveness, and high costs, resulting in poor competitiveness. In order to address the shortcomings of existing methods, a methodology and framework for manufacturing management decision support using simulation-based multi-objective optimisation is proposed. The framework incorporates modelling and the optimisation of production systems, costs, and sustainability. Decision support is created through the extraction of knowledge from optimised data. A novel method and algorithm for the detection of constraints and bottlenecks is proposed as part of the framework. This enables optimal improvement activities with ranking in order of importance can be sought. The new method can achieve a higher improvement rate, when applied to industrial improvement situations, compared to the well-established shifting bottleneck technique. A number of “laboratory” experiments and real-world industrial applications have been conducted in order to explore, develop, and verify the proposed framework. The identified gaps can be addressed with the proposed methodology. By using simulation-based methods, stochastic behaviour and variability is taken into account and knowledge for the creation of decision support is gathered through post-optimality analysis. Several conflicting objectives can be considered simultaneously through the application of multi-objective optimisation, while objectives related to running cost, investments and other sustainability parameters can be included through the use of the new cost and sustainability models introduced. Experiments and tests have been undertaken and have shown that the proposed framework can assist the creation of manufacturing management decision support and that such a methodology can contribute significantly to regaining profitability when applied within the automotive industry. It can be concluded that a proof-of-concept has been rigorously established for the application of the proposed framework on real-world industrial decision-making, in a manufacturing management context.Volvo Car Corporation, Sweden University of Skövde, Swede

Applying Aggregated Line Modeling Techniques to Optimize Real World Manufacturing Systems

The application of discrete event simulation methodology in the analysis of higher level manufacturing systems has been limited due to model complexity and the lack of aggregation techniques for manufacturing lines. Recent research has introduced new aggregation methods preparing for new approaches in the analysis of higher level manufacturing systems or networks. In this paper one of the new aggregated line modeling techniques is successfully applied on a real world manufacturing system, solving a real-world problem. The results demonstrate that the aggregation technique is adequate to be applied in plant wide models. Furthermore, in this particular case, there is a potential to reduce storage levels by over 25 %, through leveling the production flow, without compromising deliveries to customers.CC BY-NC-ND 4.0</p

Using Aggregated Discrete Event Simulation Models and Multi-Objective Optimization to Improve Real-World Factories

Improving production line performance and identifying bottlenecks using simulation-based optimization has been shown to be an effective approach. Nevertheless, for larger production systems which are consisted of multiple production lines, using simulation-based optimization can be too computationally expensive, due to the complexity of the models. Previous research has shown promising techniques for aggregating production line data into computationally efficient modules, which enables the simulation of higher-level systems, i.e., factories. This paper shows how a real-world factory flow can be optimized by applying the previously mentioned aggregation techniques in combination with multi-objective optimization using an experimental approach. The particular case studied in this paper reveals potential reductions of storage levels by over 30 %, lead time reductions by 67 %, and batch sizes reduced by more than 50 % while maintaining the delivery precision of the industrial system

What Does Multi-Objective Optimization Have to Do with Bottleneck Improvement of Production Systems?

Bottleneck is a common term used to describe the process/operation/person that constrains the performance of the whole system. Since Goldratt introduced his theory of constraint, not many will argue about the importance of identifying and then improving the bottleneck, in order to improve the performance of the entire system. Nevertheless, there exist various definitions of bottleneck, which make bottleneck identification and improvement not a straightforward task in practice. The theory introduced by Production Systems Engineering (PSE) that the bottleneck of a production line is where the infinitesimal improvement can lead to the largest improvement of the average throughput, has provided an inspirational and rigorous way to understand the nature of bottleneck. This is because it conceptually puts bottleneck identification and improvement into a single task. Nevertheless, it is said that a procedure to evaluate how the efficiency increase of each machine would affect the total performance of a line is hardly possible in most practical situations. But is this true?In this paper, we argue how multi-objective optimization fits nicely into the theory introduced by PSE and hence how it can be developed into a practical bottleneck improvement methodology. Numerical results from a real-world application study on a highly complex machining line are provided to justify the practical applicability of this new methodology

What Does Multi-Objective Optimization Have to Do with Bottleneck Improvement of Production Systems?

Bottleneck is a common term used to describe the process/operation/person that constrains the performance of the whole system. Since Goldratt introduced his theory of constraint, not many will argue about the importance of identifying and then improving the bottleneck, in order to improve the performance of the entire system. Nevertheless, there exist various definitions of bottleneck, which make bottleneck identification and improvement not a straightforward task in practice. The theory introduced by Production Systems Engineering (PSE) that the bottleneck of a production line is where the infinitesimal improvement can lead to the largest improvement of the average throughput, has provided an inspirational and rigorous way to understand the nature of bottleneck. This is because it conceptually puts bottleneck identification and improvement into a single task. Nevertheless, it is said that a procedure to evaluate how the efficiency increase of each machine would affect the total performance of a line is hardly possible in most practical situations. But is this true?In this paper, we argue how multi-objective optimization fits nicely into the theory introduced by PSE and hence how it can be developed into a practical bottleneck improvement methodology. Numerical results from a real-world application study on a highly complex machining line are provided to justify the practical applicability of this new methodology

Combining augmented reality and simulation-based optimization for decision support in manufacturing

Although the idea of using Augmented Reality and simulation within manufacturing is not a new one, the improvement of hardware enhances the emergence of new areas. For manufacturing organizations, simulation is an important tool used to analyze and understand their manufacturing systems; however, simulation models can be complex. Nonetheless, using Augmented Reality to display the simulation results and analysis can increase the understanding of the model and the modeled system. This paper introduces a decision support system, IDSS-AR, which uses simulation and Augmented Reality to show a simulation model in 3D. The decision support system uses Microsoft HoloLens, which is a head-worn hardware for Augmented Reality. A prototype of IDSS-AR has been evaluated with a simulation model depicting a real manufacturing system on which a bottleneck detection method has been applied. The bottleneck information is shown on the simulation model, increasing the possibility of realizing interactions between the bottlenecks.

Optimizing real-world factory flows using aggregated discrete event simulation modelling : Creating decision-support through simulation-based optimization and knowledge-extraction

Reacting quickly to changing market demands and new variants by improving and adapting industrial systems is an important business advantage. Changes to systems are costly; especially when those systems are already in place. Resources invested should be targeted so that the results of the improvements are maximized. One method allowing this is the combination of discrete event simulation, aggregated models, multi-objective optimization, and data-mining shown in this article. A real-world optimization case study of an industrial problem is conducted resulting in lowering the storage levels, reducing lead time, and lowering batch sizes, showing the potential of optimizing on the factory level. Furthermore, a base for decision-support is presented, generating clusters from the optimization results. These clusters are then used as targets for a decision tree algorithm, creating rules for reaching different solutions for a decision-maker to choose from. Thereby allowing decisions to be driven by data, and not by intuition. CC BY 4.0</p

Aggregated line modeling for simulation and optimization of manufacturing systems

In conceptual analysis of higher level manufacturing systems, for instance, when the constraint on system level is sought, it may not be very practical to use detailed simulation models. Developing detailed models on supply chain level or plant wide level may be very time consuming and might also be computationally costly to execute, especially if optimization techniques are to be applied. Aggregation techniques, simplifying a detailed system into fewer objects, can be an effective method to reduce the required computational resources and to shorten the development time. An aggregated model can be used to identify the main system constraints, dimensioning inter-line buffers, and focus development activities on the critical issues from a system performance perspective. In this paper a novel line aggregation technique suitable for manufacturing systems optimization is proposed, analyzed and tested in order to establish a proof of concept while demonstrating the potential of the technique

Simulation-based multi-objective bottleneck improvement : Towards an automated toolset for industry

Manufacturing companies of today are under pressure to run their production most efficiently in order to sustain their competitiveness. Manufacturing systems usually have bottlenecks that impede their performance, and finding the causes of these constraints, or even identifying their locations, is not a straightforward task. SCORE (Simulation-based COnstraint REmoval) is a promising method for detecting and ranking bottlenecks of production systems, that utilizes simulation-based multi-objective optimization (SMO). However, formulating a real-world, large-scale industrial bottleneck analysis problem into a SMO problem using the SCORE-method manually include tedious and error-prone tasks that may prohibit manufacturing companies to benefit from it. This paper presents how the greater part of the manual tasks can be automated by introducing a new, generic way of defining improvements of production systems and illustrates how the simplified application of SCORE can assist manufacturing companies in identifying their production constraints

Towards an industrial testbed for holistic virtual production development

Virtual production development is adopted by many companies in the production industry and digital models and virtual tools are utilized for strategic, tactical and operational decisions in almost every stage of the value chain. This paper suggest a testbed concept that aims the production industry to adopt a virtual production development process with integrated tool chains that enables holistic optimizations, all the way from the overall supply chain performance down to individual equipment/devices. The testbed, which is fully virtual, provides a mean for development and testing of integrated digital models and virtual tools, including both technical and methodological aspects