Simulation of assembly flow lines with buffer spaces

• Main Author: Liew, Kai Fong.
• Other Authors: Ong Nan Shing
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Manufacturing::Production management
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40325
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report presents an interesting analytical approach in the operational research pertaining to two types of systems – asynchronous and synchronous – widely used in industrial manufacturing processes. It has been widely proven by many different mathematical models that asynchronous systems can be a highly effective industrial application. However, computer simulations to ascertain the accuracy of such formulas were hard to come by. Thus, this project will investigate some trends using computer simulation as opposed to the conventional mathematical methods studies. A computer simulation software was created for the purpose of analyzing hypothetical situations to produce meaningful results which can be analogous to the actual practices in industries. Each of these situations will yield sets of results for comparison with the Buzacott’s formula. Four effects were studied and presented using computational graphic simulation, namely, the effects of deviation from Buzacott’s formula, effects of failure probability on line efficiency, effects of buffer systems, and effects of buffer on line efficiency. In the first experiment, it was found that Buzacott’s formula was reliable and accurate. However, his formula had been modified slightly to produce an even closer approximation. In the second experiment, it was found that there exists a lowest threshold in every system configuration such that a further drop of either one of the machines’ efficiency will not cause any further drop in the overall line efficiency. In the third experiment, it was found that manufacturing systems with buffer systems can result in shorter actual production cycle time. In the last experiment there exists a “diminishing return” effect in every asynchronous system such that a further increase in buffer size will not cause any further increase in overall line efficiency. Results from computational simulation produced relatively close approximations to Buzacott’s formula. This demonstrates that computer simulation can be used as an alternative way of analyzing data besides the traditional mathematical models. However, it should be noted that all these experiments done here were still at its infancy phase and further detailed studies required an in-depth analysis in to each of these results and have to be carried out extensively in future.