Manufacturing is a global activity that started during the industrial revolution in the late 19th century to cater for the large-scale production of products. Since then, manufacturing has changed tremendously through the innovations of technology, processes, materials, communication and transportation. The major challenge facing manufacturing is to produce more products using less material, le...

A simulation model was developed and tested using Taylor II to justify the implementation of a Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC). The current production capacity at the existing Continuous Flow (CF) assembly line must be increased and among other proposals, a FMC is highly recommended. Simulation models are developed, tested, verified, and the model sensitivity is evaluated. The simulation mode...

Tremendous growth of the home information appliances requests semiconductor manufacturing to respond High Product Mix and Low Production Volume condition. Such condition in manufacturing operations challenges production management to have rapid improvement activities in an environment with uncertain productivity and demand. In this research Visualized Coefficient of Variation Analysis (VCVA) wa...

A key component of lean is the creation of flow of value to the customer. Many have difficulty in understanding the practical differences between push and flow. Physical simulations are effective tools for teaching advanced manufacturing concepts to people of all ages. This paper presents a physical simulation where participants operate workstations along the assembly line in a mythical aircraf...

In this paper we are to present a practical application of Axiomatic Design (AD) methodology, as a roadmap to lean production, in redesigning a car body assembly line. Axiomatic Design theory provides a framework to simplify the whole problem. According to the AD principles, a hierarchical structure has been developed. The developed structure originated in lean manufacturing principles and exis...

Manufacturing systems are considered to be dynamical systems in terms of Dynamical Systems Theory. A dynamical model of a flow line is introduced and analysed by using its state space. The work systems of the flow line are compared to a pendulum oscillator, which are driven by the part input and damped by their processing capacity. Depending on the ratio between part input and capacity, the und...

This paper presents a new mathematical model for the problem of scheduling part families and jobs within each part family in a flow line manufacturing cell where the setup times for each family are sequence dependent and it is desired to minimize the maximum completion time of the last job on the last machine (makespan) while processing parts (jobs) in each family together. Gaining an optimal s...

There is a tough competition in the furniture sector like other sectors. Along with the varying product range, production system should also be renewed on a regular basis and the production costs should be kept under control. In this study, spring mattress manufacturing line of a furniture manufacturing company is analyzed. The company wants to increase its production output with new investment...

A simulation-based real-time scheduling mechanism for dynamic discrete manufacturing is presented in this paper. Modified mean flow time performance for different scheduling approaches is compared through off-line simulation experiments, under dynamic manufacturing environments that are subjects to disturbances such as machine breakdowns. These experimental results are used as reference indices...

We study, in the fluid flow framework, the cooperative dynamics of a buffered production line in which the production rate of each work-cell does depend on the content of its adjacent buffers. Such state dependent fluid queueing networks are typical for people based manufacturing systems where human operators adapt their working rates to the observed environment. We unveil a close analogy betwe...