Optimizing A Production Line With A Simulation Analysis

Shandong Best Precision Co.,Ltd.produces precision ball screw,precision rolling linear guide rail,high-speed precision electric spindles,high-speed spindle units of precision machinery,static and dynamic pressure spindles,CNC machine tool spindles,X-Y precision tables,precision trapezoidal screws and other kinds of precision shaft parts.The company wants a production line that has the highest possible throughput,that can be acquired with the workstations available and if necessary,that will be bought.This paper creates a simulation model of the precision spindle production line and focuses on optimizing the production line.To optimize the production line of the precision spindle,the paper detects the bottleneck in the production line by looking at the lowest effective processing speed;the other bottleneck detection method,by looking at the highest working portion,doesn't provide accurate information because the identified machine is blocked for a very high portion of the time.After that,one iteration of the Theory of Constraints,which focusses on the elimination of production line bottlenecks,was performed.To eliminate the bottleneck,a buffering technique was used,one of the production line optimization techniques.After having acquired some information about the production line and production line optimization techniques,a simulation model was created with Flex Sim software and performed9 different experiments using the processing time of each machine.The first experiment with the simulation model showed that the Cone hole grinder,found at the end of the production process is the bottleneck,using the second bottleneck detection method.However,doing more replication to find the safe production line for the company using the state each machine is in,processing,idle,and blocked,was needed.After doing 9replications the result shows machines working processes with a higher processing time becomes the bottlenecks.Next to that,In the 9^th experiment,the production rate starts to reduce,so the best production line for the company is the 8^th experiment which yields an 88.7%production rate,at first it was 78.2%.And this paper recommends the company to use this production line as a base for their company's workshop layout.Finally,this thesis paper recommends the company to update the simulation model when there is a full data on the production line currently used in the workshop.To increase the overall production line for the whole products produced in the workshop,not only for the spindle,the paper suggests the company gather all the necessary data and make another simulation model.The simulation model should then be updated after having collected all the data.A more accurate simulation model will provide useful insights into the production line,which will help to increase the performance of the overall production line.