Designing an Efficient Production System: A Case Study of a Clothing Company

Abstract

This paper is based on a discrete-event simulation model and reproduces the sewing department of a clothing company involved in the fashion industry. It aims to quantitatively assess the effects of different production configurations on flow time and production capacity. In particular, the production phases of men's jackets are examined. Eight configurations are evaluated, stemming from the combination of two parameters: batch size and number of machines. For each configuration, the flow time, the production capacity and the waiting time are computed. A subsequent Design of Experiment (DoE) analysis has been performed on these configurations, with the aim of identifying significant single and combined effects of the above parameters on the results observed. The goal is to obtain improvements in the production process. The data provided by the simulation is used in order to make a critical analysis of the system production and leads to the formation of proposals for the improvement of the lay-out.