Improving Efficiency of an Automated Welding Shop: a Simulation Approach

This paper reports on the study of the "underbody front"-automated welding cell at Opel Belgium, a major automobile manufacturer of General Motors International Operations. It employs the use of simulation in an experimental design framework to identify potential improvements in average daily output through management of buffer sizes at key buffer locations within the cell. Many practical applications of animated computer simulation stop at the modelling and displaying of the process under study. Simulation as a tool for process reengineering or enhancement can only reach its full potential if incorporated in a comprehensive statistical study, involving enough replications of the simulation to attain statistically significant results. The paper will also report on the reactions of, and issues raised by, management when the experimental design methodology was presented as a tool for process enhancement and productivity improvement.