Decision Support Simulation Method for Process Improvement of Intermittent Production Systems

Nowadays production system processes are undergoing sweeping changes. The trends include an increase in the number of product variants to be produced, as well as the reduction of the production’s lead time. These trends were induced by new devices of the industry’s 4.0, namely the Internet of Things and cyber physical systems. The companies have been applying intermittent production systems (job production, batch production) because of the increase in the number of product variants. Consequently, increasing the efficiency of these systems has become especially important. The aim of development in the long term—not achievable in many cases—is the realization of unique production, with mass production’s productivity and lower cost. The improvement of complex production systems can be realized efficiently only through simulation modeling. A standardized simulation method for intermittent production systems has not been elaborated so far. In this paper, I introduce a simulation method for system improvement and present its application possibilities and a practical example.