Use of simulation for improving the output rate: An industrial application

Our research focuses on improving the output rate of a single product CONWIP system. The system has zero intermediate buffer capacity but may use time buffers which result from minimum and maximum processing times on each workstation. The transport between the different workstations is accomplished by a single resource (a bridge crane), constituting the bottleneck of the system. Since no mathematical approach exists to model this problem, we use simulation. To determine the parameters for the simulation scenarios, we rely on CONWIP, queueing and Factory Physics® literature. We apply the model to an industrial case. The results reveal major improvements in the output rate. The decision framework used, appears to be valuable for other real-life performance improvement applications based on simulation. The results also generate generic insights in improving production performance in similar systems.