Research Of Auto Parts Production System Simulation And Optimization Based On TOC

Auto parts industry holds a very important position in China manufacturing industry. With its scale gradually expanding, the present and future situation of auto parts industry is more and more related to the stability and development of China’s industry. Faced with personalized demand, fluctuant order and unstable supplier quality, it is an urgent topic for auto parts enterprises to find out that how to improve the productivity and resource utilization as well as reduce logistics cost in order to improve production profit.Research shows that bottleneck identification and transfer in production system is one of the most important methods for production system improvement. TOC(Theory of Constraints) includes a set of methods to improve restrains and bottlenecks. Therefore, based on review of production system and TOC at home and abroad, field research was launched on assembly line in manufacturing workshop of an auto parts enterprise. Thinking process in TOC was fully applied to qualitatively analyze the production system. Computer modeling and simulation were also conducted by using Witness software, based on which, research of auto parts production system simulation and optimization were proposed and detailed analyzed.Firstly, domestic and foreign research on production system and TOC was reviewed in this paper. Research idea and methods were put forward; problems faced by auto parts industry were described; characteristics and structure of production system were analyzed; main content and framework of the research were presented. Secondly, technical methods and thinking process of TOC were expounded; types and steps of modeling and simulation in discrete manufacturing system were introduced. With the guidance of TOC, field research was developed based on simulation purpose and requirements. Methods of field observation, expert discussion and data analysis were applied to data collection, followed by qualitative analysis of production system using If-Then logical analysis method in thinking process of TOC. After obtaining undesirable effects and core problems in the production system, optimization direction was then confirmed. Finally, production system modeling and simulation were conducted by using Witness, including process definition, data input, assembly line visualization, model debugging and modification, etc. After analyzing equipments’utilization rate, workers’ busy rate and path cost, optimization in resource allocation and logistics path was developed under the permit condition and eventually put into use in actual production of the enterprise.In this paper, the problems of the production system were analyzed; bottlenecks which restricted the system performance were found; corresponding improvement measures were put forward. As a result, resource allocation was optimized, logistics cost was reduced, system output rate and logistics flow fluency were improved. It is innovative to combine thinking process in TOC and computer modeling and simulation. Meanwhile, besides the reference value for the similar types of production system optimization, this research also provides a theoretical guidance and technical support for enterprise managers.