Comparison of Different Scenarios Using Computer Simulation to Improve the Manufacturing System Productivity: Case Study

Abstract

In the manufacturing industry, managers and engineers are seeking to find methods in order to eliminate the common problems in manufacturing systems such as bottlenecks and waiting times. This is because that all of these kinds of problems impose extra cost to the companies. In addition, manufacturing companies are striving to sustain their competitiveness by improving productivity, efficiency and quality of manufacturing industry for instance high throughput and high resource utilization. The paper concentrates on the application of computer simulation to analysis manufacturing system in order to improve the productivity. Therefore, this study introduces a color manufacturing line as a case study and the basic application of arena 13.9 software. The goal of this paper is to improve the productivity and efficiency of the production line by using computer simulation. To achieve this goal, first the basic model of the current situation of production line was simulated. Second, three different alternatives were simulated and modified to find the best scenario based on the maximum productivity and minimum total cost.